Born on 20th January 1936, Engr. Akintola Bolarinwa Olanrewaju Ajai attended St. Gregory’s College Lagos and later Nigerian College of Arts Science and Technology Ibadan and Zaria Branches. He subsequently obtained a B.Sc Civil Engineering degree from the University of London in 1962.

On graduating, he joined the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing where he was involved with Roads and Highways construction throughout his career in the service. Indeed, he was involved with the design and construction of most of the road in Lagos metropolis some of which are Apapa Road, Ijora Causeway complex of roads and flyovers, Lagos trunk roads-Lagos -Ikorodu Road, Herbert Macaulay Road, Western Avenue, Ikorodu Road Flyovers, Maryland-Ikeja Airport Road, etc. Between 1977 and 1985, he was responsible for the management of Federal Highways construction activities in the Northern Eastern and South-Eastern part of the country. In 1985 and 1988, he was Assistant Director responsible for the management, budgeting and staff training in the Federal Highways Department. He retired from the services as a Deputy Director in 1990. Following his retirement, he joined Strabag Construction (Nigeria) Limited as Chief Engineer responsible for project designs, bid processes, programming and staff Management up to 1995.

He later served as the Managing Director of a Civil Engineering consultancy firm, Messrs Transport and Development Consultants. This firm, among other things, handled a World Bank Assisted study of the Nigeria roadway network packaged as ROADVISION 2000 towards the restoration and serviceability of the Nigerian road system.

In 2000, he was appointed a consultant to SETRACO (NIG.) LIMITED and later served as Project Manager on the reconstruction and rehabilitation of a number of Federal and State roads in South-Eastern Nigeria and is currently on the Board of Trustee of the Federation of the Construction Industry of Nigeria.

Engr. Ajai is a COREN registered Chartered Civil Engineer, Fellow, the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Fellow, the Economic Development Institute of the World Bank and a foundation Fellow of the Academy of Engineering.

SPECIALIZATIONS

• Highway and Public Engineering