Folorunso Alakija is a Nigerian billionaire businesswoman. She is concerned withinside the fashion, real estate, oil and printing industries. She is the managing director of The Rose of Sharon Group, which includes The Rose of Sharon Prints & Promotions Limited, Digital Reality Prints Limited and the executive vice-chairman of Famfa Oil Limited.
She has a majority stake in the DaySpring Property Development organization. Folorunso Alakija is ranked as the richest woman in Nigeria, with an estimated net worth of $1 billion. As of 2015, she is indexed as the second one most powerful woman in Africa after Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the 87th most powerful woman withinside the global by Forbes.
She was born on 15 July 1951 in Ikorodu, Lagos State. She attended her nursery schooling at Our Ladies of Apostles, Lagos, from 1955–1958. At age seven, she travelled to the UK to keep her primary schooling at Dinorben School for Girls in Hafodunos Hall in Llangernyw, Wales, between 1959–1963. On completion of her primary schooling, she attended "Muslim High School" in Sagamu, Ogun State, Nigeria. She then backs to England for her secretarial research at Pitman's Central College, London.
Folorunsho Alakija began out her profession in 1974 as a govt secretary at Sijuade Enterprises, Lagos, Nigeria. She moved to the previous First National Bank of Chicago, which later have become FinBank, now obtained by FCMB (First City Monument Bank) in which she laboured for a few years earlier than organising a tailoring corporation known as Supreme Stitches. Within some years, as Rose of Sharon House of Fashion, it has become a family name. As countrywide president and lifetime trustee of the Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria (FADAN), she left an indelible mark, selling the Nigerian way of life via style and style.
In May 1993, Alakija implemented for the allocation of an oil prospecting license (OPL). The license to explore for oil on a 617,000-acre block—now known as OPL 216—was granted to Alakija's organization, Famfa Limited. The block is about 350 kilometres (220 miles) southeast of Lagos and 110 kilometres (70 miles) offshore of Nigeria, withinside the Agbami Field of the central Niger Delta. In September 1996, she entered right into a joint project settlement with Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited and appointed the organization as a technical adviser for the exploration of the license, moving 40 per cent of her 100 per cent stake to Star Deep.
Once word were given out, they struck oil; the Nigerian authorities snatched a 40% stake. Later, they took a further 10%. For twelve years, she fought the authorities in court. The authorities argument was if Alakija and her family had been allowed to keep their bloc, they stood to make $10 million a day. Still, she persevered, and in the end, she won.
Folorunsho married a lawyer, Modupe Alakija of the Adeyemo Alakija family, in November 1976. They are living in Lagos, Nigeria, with their 4 sons and their grandchildren. Her nephew is DJ Xclusive. In June 2017, Folorunso's son Folarin Alakija, married Iranian version Nazanin Jafarian Ghaissarifar in a marriage at Blenheim Palace in England. Media reviews recommended the event was one of the world's most costly weddings.
