Mrs Folorunsho Alakija, 62, began her vocation as a secretary in a bank then considered form and propelled a name however her enormous break was oil.
According to Forbes, Oprah Winfrey is worth $2.9 billions is now behind Mrs Folorunsho Alakija who is now worth $7.3 billion
Nigerian oil tycoon Folorunsho Alakija, pictured in September, is now the richest black woman in the world with an estimated fortune of $7.3 billion
Africa boasts 55 billionaires – far more than previously thought – and they’re worth a staggering $143.88 billion in total, according to pan-African magazine Ventures Africa.
Starting her career as a secretary in a bank in the mid 1970s, Alakija, 62, then studied fashion in London and returned to Nigeria to start a label, Supreme Stitches. But her biggest break came in oil.
In 1993, her company, Famfa Oil, was awarded an oil prospecting license, which later became OML 127, one of the country’s most prolific oil blocks, by then-president Ibrahim Babangida.
The company owned a 60 per cent stake in the block until 2000 when the Nigerian government unconstitutionally acquired a 50 per cent interest without duly compensating Alakija or Famda Oil.
In May 2012, Alakija, a married mother-of-four, challenged the acquisition and the Nigerian Supreme Court reinstated the 50 per cent stake to her company.
She is also the owner of a charity called the Rose of Sharon foundation that helps widows and orphans by empowering them through scholarships and business grants.
Forbes magazine had estimated Alakija’s fortune at $600 million, as of November 2012, but the magazine’s editor-in-chief Uzodinma Iweala said his researchers were ‘closer to the ground.’
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