Richest Black Woman, Folorunsho Alakija Acquires Benz 4 G-Wagons At N88m For Four Sons

Folorunsho Alakija

Her boys

 Richest black woman, Folorunsho Alakija has just displayed the stuff she is made of to make her children more comfortable.
Sources close to the woman disclosed that she just doled out the latest edition (2013) of alluring automobiles identified as G- Wagons to her four sons.

An insider revealed that each of the wonders of wheel cost a whooping N22m outside of the cost of shipping.

Further digs revealed, the wonders on wheels were quietly brought in 'a couple of weeks back.'
The reason (s) the wealthy Nigerian opted to purchase the same brand - or the children agreed to the ploy was not clear as at press time, but we gathered it is the woman’s way of making sure her children are respected by their friends and contemporaries.
It was learnt that this woman makes as much as N160m everyday and she thought it wise to spoil her boys 'a little' with a view to giving them a different level of swags from their mates and probably any guy dragging a beautiful babe with any of them.

Oil billionaire Folorunsho Alakija was born on the 15th of July year 1951 in Lagos Nigeria. She travelled to London in the 80s to study fashion design before returning to Nigeria to start her own fashion design business.

Her then business called Supreme Stitches caters to fashion needs of wealthy Nigerians and military wives which include socialites.

Her business that started in a 3-bedroom flat in Surulere area of Lagos, Nigeria won her an award in 1986 as the best fashion designer.

Folorunsho Alakija was born into a polygamous family of 52 children.

Her father had 8 wives. Her mother was the first wife and she is the 2nd born of her father.

Folorunsho Alakija and her sister Doyle were sent abroad by their wealthy father at age 7 to study in Wales.

After 4 years of study at the private school in Northern Wales, she returned to Nigeria with her sister at the request of their parents.

Alakija returned to Nigeria at the age of 11. Her parents didn’t want her and her sister to lose their African culture, values and tradition.

She got married in 1976 to her loving husband, Modupe Alakija and the couple has four handsome boys together.

All of her children studied abroad before returning to Nigeria.

On her involvement in the oil and gas industry, she explained that through a friend she met while was still actively involved in the world of fashion, they got involved in the business of oil.

There was an oil bloc no one wanted at that time for several reasons, it was this same oil bloc they got allocated. They were approached in late 1996 by the then oil giant Texaco who were sure the bloc had potentials as they had done their home work well, and after negotiations that spanned 3 months we all agreed on terms and the rest like they say is history.

Later Texaco became Chevron and we struck oil in commercial quantity and we were told the oil had been collecting in that field for 17 million years. We consider ourselves lucky that we were allocated that particular oil field. That’s the early history of FAMFA OIL.

She is the delight-some lady behind such brands like Supreme Stitches, Rose of Sharon and Executive Director at FAMFA Oil, an indigenous Nigerian oil and gas exploration and production company, which is owned by her family. She was recently interviewed by the crew of African Voices at her apartment located at Knightsbridge in the UK.

Hear her- “I am a proud Nigerian”. On how she started- I started as a secretary, a career path chosen for me by my dad. I was the personal secretary to a bank MD. The first corporate affairs person, at the now defunct IMB. She later moved on from the corporate affairs department to the treasury department of the same company, it was from here she later moved on to set up her own business.

Talking about why she took up fashion and her fashion sense, she credits that to her family. Her mom used to be a fabric merchant and she used to help out, and through that she learnt a lot. After leaving the corporate world in the early 80′s (1984), she left to go the UK to study fashion designing. She came back to Nigeria in 1985 a year after her training and started her fashion house-Supreme Stitches at a 3-Bedroom apartment in Surulere, Lagos and a year after establishing the company, she emerged as the best Designer in the country in 1986.

Folorunsho Alakija‘s achievements till date and her philosophy on life and hopes for the future are all in a book- The hand that gives a rose which would be launched soon.

August 06, 2013