By FLORENCE AMAGIYA
That she was born into
affluence didn’t stop herfrom a strong drive for greater affluence. Today, she
is worth billions of naira and known worldwide.
Her humanitarian gestures have
been a special trade mark that has endured her in the minds of the
poor. Through her foundation, she has been able to assist widows
going through crisis, young orphans and youths who have the Opportunity to work
in her numerous companies. We present to you, Folorunsho Alakija; a mother,
sister, icon and lover of children, who was named the richest woman in Africa
by Forbes Magazine…Enjoy!
Ageless Folorunsho Alakija, no doubt, is one of the richest
women in the Africa. She was said to worth about $600m in 2012 and makes about
$1m daily from her oil business. She also has a real estate portfolio worth
over $100 million.
Alakija is an oil magnate and a publisher. In addition to her
real estate business, she is a fashion-designer and a philanthropist. She is an
Executive Vice Chairman of FAMFA Oil – an indigenous Nigerian oil and gas
exploration and Production Company.
She is also the group managing director of The Rose of Sharon
Group which consists of the Rose of Sharon Prints & Promotions Limited and
Digital Reality Prints Limited. She was ranked the richest woman in Nigeria
with an estimated net worth of $2.5billion as of 2014. She is also listed as
the 96th most powerful women in the world by Forbes.
She was born on July 15, 1951 into a large and famous family of
52 children to Chief L.A Ogbara from Ikorodu Lagos. Folorunsho Alakija’s mum
was her father’s first wife. Folorunsho left for the United Kingdom to begin a
four year primary school programme at the age of seven. She returned to attend
an Islamic School at Sagamu, Ogun state at the age of eleven. Flo, as she was
called by her friends at the primary school in Wales, also went further to
study fashion designing while in London at an American College of Fashion.
Businesses
She commenced her career in 1974 as an executive Secretary at
Sijuade Enterprises, Lagos. She moved up the ladder to work at the former First
National Bank of Chicago, which later became FinBank, and now FCMB. She
established her own clothing lines called Supreme Stitches after working with
the bank for some years. Her clothe line rose to prominence and gave birth to
the brand’s name, Rose of Sharon House of Fashion.
She took a break from her very busy life to tie the nuptial
knot; married her heart-throb, Barrister Modupe Alakija in 1976. That union is
blessed with four handsome boys.
While building her name as a designer, she applied for an oil
prospecting license through her company, FAMFA Oil, which was granted to her in
1993.
Although she didn’t know much about the Oil and Gas business,
she ventured into it knowing well that she would get better on the job like she
had done in some other businesses she was doing. It paid off eventually. She
has used that platform to build an empire in Oil and Gas, making her one of the
biggest names in the sector. Today, she is worth at least $3.3 billion.
Properties and private Jet
Recently, she purchased a $102 million property at one Hyde Park
in London as well as a private jet (Bombardier Global Express 6000 jet) which
is worth $46 million.
Cars
She recently bought four SUVs worth N88m for her boys. According
to report, she spent a whooping sum of N22m each for a brand new G-Wagon SUV
which was quietly shipped into the country. The SUVs were customized for her
sons.
Foundation
Her foundation is called the Rose of Sharon, which specializes
in empowering poor orphans and widows by giving them or their children
scholarships and business grants.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/folorunsho-alakija-billion-queen-oil-bloc/#sthash.ThwtvpmY.dpuf
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