Have you heard of Folorunsho Alakija? Well, she is a 62 year-old Nigerian billionaire. She is the second richest African woman after Angola’s Isabel Dos Santos.

Alakija is the vice chair of the Famfa Oil and a fashion designer. Fanfa Oil is a gas and oil exploration company in Nigeria with 60% interest in Block OML 127. This block is part of the Agbami field as well as the largest deepwater discoveries in Nigeria.

Folorunsho Alakija’s net worth currently stands at around $1.8 billion. Although Alakija’s wealth is mainly from oil, her first venture was a fashion label company. The label catered for elite women in Nigeria including Ibrahim Babangida’s wife. Babangida is the former Nigerian military president.

In the 70s, Alakija served as the secretary of the International Merchant Bank of Nigeria. This was among the earliest investment banks of the West African Nation. However, she quit her day job to focus on fashion design studies in the United Kingdom. On returning to
Nigeria, she founded her fashion label, Supreme Stitches in 1985. It took the company just one year to become the largest Nigerian designer company.

She also founded Famfa Oil which was awarded an oil prospecting license in 1993 by President Babangida. Later, the company became the most prolific oil block by owning 60% of the block’s stake. 50% of the stake in this block was illegally acquired by President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2000 without compensating the company or Alakija, the Supreme Court revoked the stake later.

Folorunsho Alakija net worth has fallen over the recent past due to low oil prices but her immense wealth still puts her amongst the richest women on the planet.