Meet Hajj Adam Babah-Alargi, the first Ghanaian to establish indigenous engineering consultancy

Hajj Adam Babah-Alargi, was the first Ghanaian to establish indigenous engineering consultancy in the country in 1967, BAB Consultancy.

Hajj Adam, born to Muslim parents at Korle Gonno in Accra, had his tertiary education in Structural Engineering at Hammersmith College in England.

Projects

Hajj Adam is known for some prominent projects including the structural designs at the School of Architecture, Pharmacy Block, Vice Chancellor’s residence and the Queen’s Hall, all at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi.

Others are the Surgical, Maternity and Children’s Blocks, Nurses Training School and residences at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, and the presidential stand at the Independence Square in Accra.

Philanthropic works

Hajj Babah-Alargi is a member of Rotary Club of Accra-West, Adam together with ten others – an Indian, two Ghanaians, and 6 Europeans – started the Rotary Club of Accra-West.

In 1987, the then-District Governor, the late Michael Asafo-Boakye appointed Adam a District Governor’s Special Representative to help form the Rotary Club of Osu-RE.

Admitting that being a Rotarian has contributed to his deep involvement in humanitarian service, Hajj Babah-Alargi believes many more people can apply Rotary principles to their lives without necessarily being Rotarians.

The octogenarian volunteer believes, however, that non-Rotarians can familiarise themselves with some Rotarian principles to make it easier for them to appreciate thinking beyond just oneself.

Hajj Babah-Alargi cited the four-way test as a simple but powerful guide for those who applied it in their dealings with others.

Developed by a Rotarian, Herbert J. Taylor in 1932, the Four-way Test is a simple guide that prompts applicants to ask four basic questions of the things they think, say or do.

The four questions demand truth, fairness, goodwill and better friendships as well as the need for those thoughts, statements, and actions to be beneficial to all concerned.

Hajj Babah-Alargi maintains that perceiving others along such lines opens the way for a person to appreciate people and their needs.

Professional work

Hajj Babah-Alargi joined BoltenHennesy and Partners in 1958 at the time the company was handling projects in the Gold Coast, specifically, university projects at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

In 1960 the biggest foreign consulting firm in Ghana, OVE Aropp & Partners engaged Hajj as Director.

The first project he oversaw was the erection of the Presidential stand at the Black Star Square, which needed to be ready for the Queen’s visit.

In 1965, the then Head of State of Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, engaged Adam Hajj Babah – Alargi to reconstruct the Presidential stand at the Black Star Square after observing that the stand was too high.

Dr Nkrumah was, however, unable to use the stand as he was overthrown before the project was ready in 1966.

A year later, Hajj Adam set up his own consultancy firm, BAB Consultancy – the first consultancy firm by a Ghanaian.

Hajj handled a few projects and became a consultant for the Bank of Ghana, National Investment Bank, and Messrs SKOA until he retired in 1987.

Religious life

Hajj’s religious life brought him into contact with prominent clerics in the Islamic faith as he together with Sheik Osman Nuhu Shaributu, the National Chief Imam and Sheik I. C. Quay, a former Minister, were on that infamous 1989 pilgrimage to Mecca when all flights were grounded because of a coup d’état in Sudan.

Death

Hajj Adam Babah-Alargi died at age 92