The Most Influential Person on AIB This Week Is Folorunsho Alakija

Folorusho Alakija was born on July 15, 1951, into an upper-middle-class family. Her father was Chief L. A. Ogbara of Ikorodu, Lagos State. Her father had 8 wives and 52 children. Folorunso’s mother was the first of 8 wives.

Folorunsho Alakija is a businesswoman and philanthropist, She works in the printing, real estate, oil, fashion, and printing sectors. She serves as the executive vice-chairman of Famfa Oil Limited in addition to serving as the group managing director of The Rose of Sharon Group, which includes The Rose of Sharon Prints & Promotions Limited, Digital Reality Prints Limited, and other companies.

Alakija attended Our Ladies of Apostles in Lagos for her Nursery education, from 1955 to 1958. Then she left Nigeria at the age of seven to attend the Dinorben School for Girls in Hafodunos Hall in Llangernyw, Wales, from 1959 to 1963. After completing her elementary education, Alakija returned to Nigeria and attended Muslim High School in Sagamu, Ogun State for her Secondary education. She later left Nigeria for England for her secretarial studies at Pitman’s Central College in London.

After earning her secretarial certificate from Pitman’s Central College London, Folorunsho Alakija began her 12-year banking career in Lagos, Nigeria, as an executive secretary for Sijuade Enterprises. Afterward, she moved to the joined First National Bank of Chicago, (which later changed its name to FinBank and was subsequently bought by FCMB (First City Monument Bank as the managing director’s executive secretary,

She was appointed as the new head of the corporate affairs division at the International Merchant Bank of Nigeria (formerly the First National Bank of Chicago), and she then moved on to the position of office assistant in the Treasury Department.

Alakija then pursued a career in fashion design at the Central School of Fashion and The American College in London. She established the Supreme Stitches fashion line, which was renamed The Rose of Sharon House of Fashion in 1996. She served as the president of the Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria (FADAN) between

In May 1993, Alakija submitted a request for an oil prospecting license (OPL) ] The oil exploration permit for a 617,000-acre block, currently known as OPL 216, was given to oil company Famfa Limited.

Alakija is ranked by Forbes as the 96th most influential woman in the world as of 2014. According to Forbes, two Nigerian women, Alakija and Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, were rated among the top 100 most powerful women in the world in May 2015.

Benson Idahosa University in Benin City awarded her an honorary doctorate in business administration on July 17, 2021. This was done in honor of what she had given to the corporate world.

She got married to Modupe Alakija, a lawyer from the family of Alakija Ageyemo.