Folorunso Alakija

Folorunsho Alakija (born July 15, 1951) is a Nigerian businesswoman and philanthropist. She is currently the group managing director of The Rose of Sharon Group and also serves as executive vice chairman of Famfa Oil Limited.

Early life
Alakija was born on July 15, 1951. Her father, L. A. Ogbara, had 8 wives and 52 children, and Folorunso's mother was his first. She is from the Yoruba ethnicity of south-western Nigeria. At the age of ten, Alakija traveled to the United Kingdom for her education. Alakija attended Muslim High School in Shagamu, Nigeria. She then returned to England for her secretarial studies at Pitman's Central College, London.

Career
Alakija started her 12-year banking career in 1974 as an executive secretary at Sijuade Enterprises in Lagos, Nigeria. She moved to the former First National Bank of Chicago as the Executive Secretary to the Managing Director. She became the Head of the Corporate Affairs Department of the International Merchant Bank of Nigeria, and later became the Office Assistant to the Treasury Department.

Alakija then studied fashion design at the American College in London and the Central School of Fashion. She started a fashion label called Supreme Stitches, renamed in 1996 as The Rose of Sharon House of Fashion. She was the president and lifelong trustee of the Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria (FADAN).

In May 1993, Alakija applied for the allocation of an oil prospecting license (OPL). The license to explore for oil on a 617,000-acre block, about offshore of Nigeria, in the Agbami Field, was granted to Alakija's company, Famfa Limited. In September 1996, Alakija entered into a joint venture agreement with Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited, transferring a 40 percent stake to Star Deep. After they struck oil, the Nigerian government claimed a 40% stake, followed by an additional 10%. The government argued that if Alakija and her family were allowed to keep their block, Alakija would dispute this claim and win.

Recognition
Forbes has listed Alakija among the world's 100 most powerful women, and has been ranked as the richest woman in Africa.

On July 17, 2021, Benson Idahosa University, Benin City, she received an honorary doctorate degree in business administration.

Philanthropy
Alakija established the Rose of Sharon Foundation, which was intended to grant widows and orphans scholarships and business grants. Alakija has donated a skills acquisition center to Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech), a higher educational institution located in Lagos.

Personal life
Alakija married Modupe Alakija in November 1976. They reside in Lagos, Nigeria, with their four sons. In June 2017, their son, Folarin Alakija, married Iranian model Nazanin Jafarian Ghaissarifar.