richest woman with a net worth of $600m as at November when Forbes
released its 'Africa's 40 richest'.
The married mother of four who owns a £64M (N16,049,664,000) flat in
One Hyde Park, London, started her career in the mid 1970s as a
secretary at the now-defunct International Merchant Bank of Nigeria,
one of the West African nation's earliest investment banks. In the
1980s, after studying fashion design in England, she founded Supreme
Stitches, a Nigerian fashion label that catered to upscale clientele
and six years later, she emerged the best designer in the country in
1986.
Alakija struck gold in 1993 when then Nigerian President, Ibrahim
Babangida awarded her company, Famfa Oil, an oil prospecting license
which went on to become OML 127, one of Nigeria's most prolific oil
blocks that reportedly rakes in N157 million a day.
But it wasn't all a rosy affair as she'd a running battle with the
Nigerian government under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which
unconstitutionally acquired a 50% interest in the block without duly
compensating Alakija or her company. Famfa Oil went to court to
challenge the acquisition, and in May this year, the Nigerian Supreme
Court reinstated the 50% stake to Famfa Oil.
Alakija through her charity, the Rose of Sharon Foundation, supports
widows throughout Nigeria.
Culled From Forbes