Nigerian oil tycoon, Mrs Folorunsho Alakija, is now said to be the richest black woman in the world with an estimated fortune of $7.3 billion.
The latest ranking by a pan-African magazine, Ventures Africa, rated Alakija above an American TV queen, Oprah Winfrey, who, according to Forbes magazine ranking was earlier said to be the world’s richest black woman with a networth of $2.9.
In the latest edition of Ventures Africa, the magazine said the African continent boasts of 55 billionaires, worth $143.88 billion in total.
Alakija, a 62-year-old mother-of-four, apart from being a business woman, also has a charity called the Rose of Sharon foundation that helps widows and orphans by empowering them through scholarships and business grants.
In 1993, her company, Famfa Oil, was awarded an oil prospecting license, which later became OML 127, one of the country’s most prolific oil blocks, by then-president Ibrahim Babangida.
The company owned a 60 per cent stake in the block until 2000, when the government acquired a 50 per cent interest without compensating Alakija or Famda Oil.
In May 2012, Alakija, challenged the acquisition and the Nigerian Supreme Court reinstated the 50 per cent stake to her company.
Ventures Africa narates how Alakija grew her networth from $3.3bn to $7.3bn: “In November last year when Ventures Africa published a story outing Nigerian fashion designer and oil magnate Folorunsho Alakija as the richest black woman in the world, we pegged her net worth at $3.3 billion and explained the rationale for our valuation in detail.
“But in our inaugural ranking of Africa’s richest people, which we published on Monday, we place Alakija as the fourth richest person in Africa with a fortune we estimate at $7.3 billion.
“Here’s our rationale: In March this year, Petrobas, a Brazilian oil company that owns an 8 percent working interest in OML 127 in which Alakija owns 60 per cent, announced that it was actively looking to dispose of its stake for a figure in the region of $1.5 – $2.5 billion. According to sources at Petrobas, there are a number of interested suitors for the stake.
“Since we prefer to be as conservative as possible, we take the low-end and assume that they will fetch $1billion for the stake. If their 8 per cent fetches them $1 billion, then Alakija’s 60 per cent is worth over $7.3 billion. Alakija also owns a Bombardier Jet as well as a large collection of prime real estate in Nigeria and London.
“Alakija, born into a wealthy, polygamous Nigerian family, started out her professional career in the mid 70s as a secretary at the International Merchant Bank of Nigeria and in the early 80s, quit her job to study Fashion design in England.
“She returned to Nigeria shortly afterwards to start Supreme Stitches, a premium Nigerian fashion label that catered exclusively to upscale clientele, including Maryam Babangida, the wife of Nigeria’s former military President Ibrahim Babangida. Leveraging on this proximity to power, she acquired an oil prospecting license, the basis of her enormous fortune today.
called from: tribune
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