Folorunsho Alakija is a Nigerian billionaire businesswoman and philanthropist.
She is involved in the fashion, oil, real estate and printing industries.
Alakija was born on 15 July 1951 to an upper-middle-class family.
She studied secretarial studies at Pitman’s Central College, London.
After a 12-year career in banking, Alakija embarked on a new adventure, studying fashion design at The American College in London and the Central School of Fashion.
After returning to Nigeria, she established her first fashion label, Supreme Stitches, which was later renamed The Rose Of Sharon House of Fashion in 1996.
Alakija founded the Rose of Sharon Foundation, which provides scholarships and small business grants to widows and orphans.
Forbes ranks Folorunsho Alakija as Nigeria’s richest woman, with a net worth of $1 billion as of 2020.
According to Forbes, Alakija is the second most powerful woman in Africa after Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the 87th most powerful woman in the world as of 2015.
Alakija married a lawyer, Modupe Alakija.
They have four sons and grand children.
