Chief Akosin Habeeb Olalekan Okunola, OFR, MON, FICAb, is a highly resourceful serial entrepreneur whose vision is in complete alignment with Nigeria’s National Development Plan. His company, CINI Holdings is an African-based conglomerate built on the foundation of collaboration, innovation, and sustainable growth. Driving growth through strategic partnerships, innovative solutions, and sustainable practices across diverse sectors, the company’s commitment is to simplify complexities, unlock new opportunities, and deliver value across multiple industries. These include construction, engineering, energy, technology, supply chain management, mineral exploration, real estate, and agro-allied services.

While expanding its footprint across Africa and emerging markets worldwide, CINI Holdings’ focus remains on delivering high-impact solutions that address real-world challenges through cutting-edge technology, steadfast commitment to excellence, while shaping industries, empowering communities, and contributing to a more sustainable future.

As a dynamic business leader and philanthropist whose accomplishments were crowned in excellence, he won the ‘Excellence In Business Leadership and Community Development’ Award, 2019 at the Pan-African Humanitarian Summit and Award in Abu Dhabi. This is a clear acknowledgement of his forward-thinking business acumen and significant achievements in humanitarian initiatives, as well as dedication to socio-economic development within underserved communities.

For these and more, Dr. Habeeb Olalekan Okunola has been recognised by The Guardian as one of the “Sixty Most Inspiring, Visionary, and Transformative Business Leaders That Shaped Nigeria’s Economic Growth In 2026”.
In a brief chat, he spoke with The Guardian on CINI Holdings’ key projects, engagements/partnerships, the company’s quality assurance and global best practice, the business landscape in Nigeria, and the long-term vision for CINI Holdings, amongst sundry issues.

Excerpts ….

As an indigenous conglomerate, what can you say inspired CINI Holdings to go into its key business areas and how can you describe the company’s impact across these different sectors where it operates and by extension the company’s contribution to Nigeria’s GDP growth in the last twelve months?

CINI Holdings grew out of a conviction I have held since my earliest years in business – that Nigeria’s development must never be completely outsourced. Our journey began from a simple conviction that Nigeria has enormous opportunities in sectors that directly influence the quality of life and productive capacity of its people.

Infrastructure, construction, engineering, energy, technology, supply chain management, real estate, agriculture and mineral development are not isolated sectors. They are interconnected parts of the economic system. When one performs poorly, it affects the others. When they develop together, they create jobs, stimulate enterprise and expand the productive capacity of the economy.

That thinking has shaped the evolution of CINI Holdings. Today, our portfolio cuts across construction and engineering, energy, technology, procurement and supply chain management, mineral exploration, real estate and agro-allied services.

Our subsidiaries are structured around this wider capacity, with each business addressing a particular need while contributing to the strength of the group as a whole.

Collaboration is the new innovation; one company, one sector or one individual cannot solve every problem. We bring together expertise, capital, technology and relationships to deliver solutions that create value for clients, partners, communities, and shareholders.

Our contribution to the Nigerian economy should, therefore, not be viewed only through the narrow question of corporate turnover. Every road, power project, housing development, procurement contract, engineering solution, technology deployment, and agricultural intervention creates economic activity around it. It engages professionals, contractors, suppliers, artisans, transporters and communities, while strengthening value chains and keeping money circulating within the economy.

What are the key projects, engagements and partnerships that have shaped the company’s growth, especially those that were delivered in recent time and others that are currently under development?

Our growth has been shaped by a combination of major infrastructure engagements, international partnerships, and the discipline to build relationships around capability rather than convenience. One of the projects particularly close to me is the Bahrain Power Plant project in Delta State. We secured the contract to revive a power plant that had been out of operation for several years. The project involves gas turbine technology and a partnership with Schneider Electric of France. For me, its significance goes beyond the value of the contract.

It is about helping to restore productive capacity in a sector that has a direct bearing on Nigeria’s economic development.

Similarly, we have developed international relationships around major opportunities in renewable energy and infrastructure. In Saudi Arabia’s NEOM City, for instance, we have been involved in renewable energy opportunities in partnership with Energy China. These relationships demonstrate the kind of international collaboration that we believe will increasingly define the next phase of CINI’s growth.

Our international expansion has not been limited to large infrastructure projects. In the United Kingdom, our real estate activities include social housing, where we have grown from an initial portfolio of about 10 rooms to more than 700 rooms across locations including Hackney and Cuba. That experience has reinforced our belief that sustainable business models can be built around solving real social needs while generating dependable long-term returns.

At home, our heritage projects in transmission infrastructure, construction, remediation, housing, marine engineering and public-sector infrastructure have provided a strong foundation for the group.

Our current structure builds on that experience while positioning newer platforms such as Future Minerals, Value Exchange Real Estate and TILT Property Rescue for growth.

Essentially, what matters to us is not the number of projects we can announce. It is the capacity to deliver projects that remain useful long after the ceremony is over.

How can you describe the nexus between the corporate vision of CINI Holdings and its success story, cutting-edge advantage, growth trajectory and how the company has been able to earn the trust of both clients and shareholders?

The meaning of CINI captures our philosophy: Collaboration Is the New Innovation.

That is not simply a corporate slogan. It is the way we approach business. The old model of business was largely built around trying to control everything internally. The world has changed. The most valuable opportunities today often exist at the intersection of different capabilities, markets and ideas. Thus, know what you are good at and otherwise, build the right relationships around both.

Our competitive advantage has come from this ability to bring different capabilities together and create solutions around complex problems. We combine local knowledge with international partnerships, technical expertise with commercial understanding, and physical infrastructure with technology.

Diversification has also given the group resilience. We operate across sectors that have different cycles, not dependent on the performance of one market alone. More importantly, these sectors complement one another. Procurement supports construction.

Engineering supports infrastructure. Real Estate creates investment opportunities. Technology improves business management. Agriculture and natural resources open additional value chains.

Trust, for us, is earned through consistency. Clients want to know that when you say something will be delivered, you have the capacity and integrity to deliver it.

Shareholders want to know that their capital is being managed with discipline and that growth is not being pursued at the expense of sustainability.

Value must come before money. When you consistently solve problems, honour commitments and create value for the people around you, trust becomes an outcome of your conduct rather than something you ask people to give you.

That philosophy has helped CINI move from being predominantly Nigeria-focused into a business with an expanding international footprint.

Can you attribute the aforementioned success story to what makes CINI Holdings different from other Nigerian companies, especially in its approach to quality assurance, global best practice in its operations, as well as the high standard in products and services?

Our difference is not that we claim to be better than everyone else. It is that we have deliberately built a culture where excellence is treated as a responsibility.

Quality is not a marketing concept. It determines whether infrastructure projects will perform as intended, whether resources have been properly deployed and whether the client can depend on what you have delivered. Therefore, CINI places considerable emphasis on technical competence, project controls, quality assurance, professional standards, technology and the use of appropriate international expertise.

Technology has also become an important part of how we work. We have adopted tools such as Building Information Modeling, drone surveys, real-time project communication and digital project management systems in areas of our construction operations. These tools improve visibility, decision-making and control over complex projects.

Our international partnerships expose our teams to standards, systems and ways of working that go beyond the traditional Nigerian operating environment.

Working with global companies also means that you have to meet expectations that are measured against international benchmarks.

Nonetheless, standards are sustained by people. You can buy technology, systems and equipment, but you cannot outsource organisational culture.

At CINI, we expect our people to understand that every assignment carries our name and that reputation is one asset that takes years to build but can be damaged by one careless decision. That is why we continue to invest in learning, leadership development and exposure to global business thinking. I have personally undertaken executive programmes at institutions including Harvard Business School, London Business School, Wharton and INSEAD because I believe leadership itself must remain a continuous learning process.

In your own opinion, what are the major challenges facing entrepreneurs like you in Nigeria today and how have you been able to consistently navigate through them?

Entrepreneurship in Nigeria requires resilience, but resilience by itself is not enough. You need adaptability, sound judgement, patience and the ability to make difficult decisions without losing sight of the long-term.

One of our greatest challenges remains the operating environment. Infrastructure deficits, energy costs, access to affordable capital, regulatory uncertainty, foreign exchange pressures and the cost of doing business can significantly affect the ability of Nigerian companies to compete.

For businesses working in infrastructure and manufacturing-related value chains, these challenges can be particularly pronounced because projects require substantial capital, long planning horizons and dependable supply chains.

My response has always been to focus on what we can control. We control our standards. We control how we treat clients. We control the quality of our people. We control our willingness to learn. We control our financial discipline. We control the relationships we build.

Another important lesson has been the need to remain patient without becoming passive. There are opportunities that require you to wait for the right conditions, and there are others that require you to act before everyone else sees the opportunity.

Leadership is largely about knowing the difference. Personally, I have learned to keep moving. The business environment will change, policies will change, markets will change and circumstances will change. What cannot change is your commitment to creating value.

Can you tell us more about the long-term vision for CINI Holdings?

Our long-term vision is to build CINI Holdings into a globally respected African business group that can originate, finance, execute and manage complex opportunities across strategic sectors. We are not building for the next financial year alone. We are building an institution that can outlive individuals and remain relevant across generations.

Our expansion into areas such as mineral exploration, real estate, infrastructure, energy, technology, procurement and agro-allied services is part of that wider ambition. We want to develop businesses that are commercially sustainable while responding to the real economic and social needs of the markets in which we operate.

Africa has enormous resources, talent and markets, but much of its potential remains underdeveloped because capital, expertise, infrastructure and markets do not always connect effectively. We want CINI to operate in that space.

Our ambition is therefore not simply to take a Nigerian company into other countries. It is to build an African group that can partner with serious global institutions, attract international capital and expertise, create opportunities for African talent and participate meaningfully in projects that shape the future of our continent.

I also want CINI to remain a company with a conscience. Profit is necessary for sustainability, but profit cannot be the only measure of success. The businesses that will endure are those that create value for shareholders while creating opportunities for employees, suppliers, communities and the wider economy.

For me, the ultimate measure of success is not how much one has accumulated. It is what one has been able to build, how many people have been empowered by that journey and whether the institutions one leaves behind are stronger than the ones one inherited.

That is the CINI Holdings we are building.