LEADERSHIP Awards: Abimbola Akinajo Is Public Service Person Of The Year 2023

Since Lagos State governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu appointed her as the first female managing director/CEO of Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) in 2019, she has never kept anyone in doubt that her rich experience in civil and rail infrastructure delivery would break the jinx that hitherto retarded the realisation of rail transportation in the state.

Within four years of calling the shots at the 16-year-old transport planning, implementing, regulating and franchising authority as managing director, Engr. Mrs. Abimbola Akinajo realised the Lagos blue rail project that had been in limbo 40 years after the idea for a metro line for the state was hatched.

Given the number and magnitude of rail infrastructure LAMATA has achieved under the leadership of Akinajo, it would be right to say she has taken the agency to a level never envisaged by its founders. In the last four years, she has instilled discipline in the staff, invigorated LAMATA in all aspects and led from the front to ensure that standards are met in the delivery of the various projects.

Her exemplifying brilliant leadership, coupled with capacity and doggedness, has not only seen the Blue Line, a 27-kilometre rail route designed to run from Okokomaiko eastwards to Mile 2, commencing commercial operations in Lagos, but she also masterminded the construction of the red line currently at about 95 to 96 per cent completion stage.

Engr. Akinajo is a chartered civil engineer, both in the UK and Nigeria, with over 30 years of post-qualification experience, the last 25 of which has been in the design and delivery of major transport, both rail and road, infrastructure projects.

She earned a B.Sc. (Hons) in Civil Engineering from the University of Lagos, and proceeded to the United Kingdom where she started her engineering career at WS Atkins Consulting as a graduate engineer. She moved on to become a project engineer with Robert West Consulting, a design manager with Fluor Daniel Limited and finally a project manager with London Underground Limited, working on railway infrastructure projects.

In the rail industry in the UK where she spent over 20 years of her professional life, she delivered many high-profile rail infrastructure projects, including major London underground rail bridge replacement projects, the Connect Project – (implementation of updated communications systems on the entire London Underground system), upgrading the Blackfriars station for the Thames Link project, The East London Line project handover, and London Overground Interface project, among others.

In 2009 she became the managing director of Nexant Consulting Limited and grew it into a reputable quality-driven consulting firm with an excellent track record among its clients. She has about three decades of experience working in the railway industry.

Mrs Akinajo has extensive experience in liaising and coordinating with different stakeholders to ensure timely delivery of projects to programme, budget and specification.