For several years now, Forbes and Ventures Africa magazines have presented the Nigerian Folorunsho Alakija respectively as the richest black woman in the world or the richest in Africa. A first place that she stole from the famous American television host and producer Oprah Winfrey for a long time.
For the year 2021, the Nigerian businesswoman, Folorunsho Alakija, is among the two richest women in Africa according to the richest black woman in the world according to the American economic magazine Forbes alongside Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of former President Eduardo dos Santos of Angola. But they no longer appear as in 2020 on the list of billionaires. Seven African countries have billionaires, and not a single woman for this year. And for good reason, they have fallen below the threshold of 1 billion dollars (540.2 billion FCFA) necessary to be considered as such. The reasons for this decline are different. For the Nigerian who is still the richest woman in her country, it is due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has caused oil to fall. While for the Angolan, the actions brought by the Angolan State against her have not arranged her affairs.
For many years, Folorunsho Alakija has been at the forefront of the richest black women in the world. In 2015, she still kept her first place ahead of the famous American television host and producer Oprah Winfrey. According to Forbes magazine, she is not only the richest woman in Nigeria but also the “richest black woman in the world”. The Nigerian businesswoman made a fortune mainly in oil. After a stint as Executive Secretary to the Managing Director of the First National Bank of Chicago, she became Director of Corporate Affairs of the International Merchant Bank of Nigeria Limited (IMB). Then, she embarked on her own business. Because, in the early 1990s, she quickly understood the benefits that could be derived from investing in the oil sector.Today, her company Famfa Oil Limited, which owns 60% of shares in OML 127, offshore oil tanker, which produces nearly 200,000 barrels of black gold daily. It will have done a good deal above all by concluding a joint-venture agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of Texaco, Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited in September 1996. Pan-African economic magazine Ventures Africa has just confirmed its first position, with 485 million euros more than the American Oprah Winfrey whose fortune was estimated at 2.7 billion dollars recently.
At the head of a fortune estimated at his time at 3.3 billion dollars, or nearly 2.5 billion euros, nothing seemed to predestine Folorunsho Alakija to invest in oil in particular. Especially since her professional background is literally the opposite of such an activity. She first studied fashion and design in England before joining the banking sector in her country and leaving to run her own business. All in all, it first needed its sector of origin, which is fashion, to serve as a launching pad. With her clothing brand “Supreme Stitches”, she is one of the pioneers in this field in her country of origin, Nigeria. And for good reason, Folorunsho Alakija is still very attached to this sector and active in particular within the Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria. Nigerian fashion also largely owes her its openness to the international market and the promotion it enjoyed when she was the president of this association. According to sources from Afrique Destinations, Folorunsho Alakija had actually acquired a building stock in London. Without the said sources specifying the actual amount of this purchase for which Ventures Africa had indicated 102 million dollars. She also had a $46 million private jet. Married and mother of four children, the richest woman in Nigeria has nonetheless remained a discreet, humble person and attached to her family.
By Serge Félix N’Piénikoua
