I started out as a secretary - Folorunsho Alakija

I started out as a secretary - Folorunsho Alakija

• Written by  Ruth Olurounbi

Fashion designer, oil tycoon and philanthropist, Folorunsho Alakija last year emerged the richest black woman in the world beating out media tycoon, Oprah Winfery.

This was according to Ventures Africa, a monthly Pan-African business magazine. According to the publication, Alakija, 61, is worth at least $3.3 billion, contrary to a Forbes Magazine ranking which pegged her net worth at only $600 million. This makes her $500 million richer than media mogul, Oprah Winfrey, whose wealth was estimated at $2.7 billion in September.

Alakija is the founder and owner of Famfa Oil, a Nigerian oil company which owns a 60 per cent working interest in OML 127 that produces about 200,000 barrels a day.

The fashion entrepreneur began her professional career in the mid 70s as a secretary at the now defunct International Merchant Bank of Nigeria, one of the country’s earliest investment banks.

“I started as a secretary, a career path chosen for me by my dad. I  was the personal secretary to a bank MD,” she said in an interview.

She later quit the job in the early 80’s and went on to study Fashion Design in England.

Upon her return, she established Supreme Stitches, a premium Nigerian fashion label which catered exclusively to upscale clientele. She credited her fashion business and fashion sense to her family, most especially her mother.

Having excelled in the fashion business, Alakija, in 1993, applied for an allocation of an Oil Prospecting License (OPL) to explore for oil on a 617,000 acre block – (now referred to as OPL 216).

The license was granted to Alakija’s company, Famfa Limited and there began her journey to the top.

She explained that she got into oil and gas business through a friend she met while still on active fashion business.

Alakija is worth $100 million in real estate. Earlier this year, Nigerian and British media announced that Alakija acquired a property at Hyde Park for $102 million. She also owns a Bombardier Global Express 6000 which she bought earlier this year for a reported $46 million.

Source: Tribune