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By Funsho Arogundade
Ten years in business is no small feat, and GRAZA Media Limited had every reason to pause and celebrate. At the Chelsea Hotel, Abuja, clients, staff, suppliers and industry heavyweights gathered for an evening of warmth, reflection and celebration as the Out-of-Home advertising firm marked a decade of growth, while unveiling an ambitious vision for the next chapter.
But beyond the champagne, photographs and familiar industry faces, one man quietly commanded much of the evening’s attention: Zacchaeus Akinadewo, GRAZA’s founder and Chief Executive Officer. Calm, thoughtful and visibly passionate about what he has built, Akinadewo was less interested in basking in the glow of a 10-year milestone than in talking about what comes next. For him, the anniversary was not an endpoint. It was a conversation starter.
Under the theme, ‘GRAZA at 10 — The Next Decade Starts With Us’ the gentleman offered a glimpse into the mind of a businessman who appears increasingly fascinated by the possibilities beyond traditional outdoor advertising.
“A billboard is a product. A location is an asset. An audience is an opportunity. Attention is value. Intelligence creates advantage,” he declared. The statement neatly captures Akinadewo’s personality: ambitious, analytical and unwilling to be boxed into conventional thinking. He sees GRAZA’s future extending beyond billboards into data, technology, audience intelligence and measurable impact. His vision is to make visibility more intelligent, more measurable and more useful to brands.
Yet, for all his talk of technology and strategy, Akinadewo remains intensely people-focused. At the anniversary, he repeatedly returned to the employees, clients, suppliers and partners who helped build GRAZA.
“The employee is also the brand. A logo does not answer the phone. A billboard does not manage a relationship. People do,” he said. That perhaps reveals another side of the GRAZA boss: a leader who understands that businesses may be built on ideas, but reputations are built through relationships.
As guests celebrated around him, Akinadewo was already looking towards 2036. When asked what GRAZA should become by its 20th anniversary. “We are prepared to stop what no longer serves us, start what the future requires and protect the things that made GRAZA worth building,” he said.
For Akinadewo, ten years is history. The real excitement, clearly, is what he intends to do with the next ten.
