How a Fashion Designer Became Africa’s Richest Woman

A landmark May 4, 2012 ruling by Nigeria’s Supreme Court overturned a decade-long government seizure of oil shares, paving the way for fashion designer Folorunsho Alakija to become Africa’s wealthiest woman.

The court ruled that the federal government’s acquisition of equity in Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 216 was "illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional." The judgment restored a 60 percent stake in the lucrative deep-water block to Alakija’s company, Famfa Limited.

Six months later, on November 20, 2012, Forbes Magazine named Alakija Africa’s richest woman, valuing her OPL 216 asset at $600 million. By 2020, the value of her stake had climbed to $1.98 billion.

The legal dispute began after Nigeria transitioned from military to civilian rule in 1999 following the sudden death of military ruler Sani Abacha in 1998. Newly elected President Olusegun Obasanjo seized a 40 percent share of Famfa’s partnership in OPL 216, leaving the company with just 20 percent.

In her memoir, "Growing with the Hand that Gives the Rose," Alakija described the seizure as "the worst day of my life." She noted that many relatives and all of her friends deserted her during the crisis.

Through her husband and attorney, Modupe Alakija, she filed a wrongful acquisition lawsuit against the federal government. As the case dragged through the courts, the Obasanjo administration took over an additional 10 percent stake from Famfa, while foreign partners Texaco and Petrobras retained their 40 percent share.

In December 2004, while the litigation was still ongoing, OPL 216 was converted into an Oil Mining License (OML), legally authorizing commercial oil extraction.

Alakija’s path to the oil sector began far from offshore drilling rigs. Born Folorunsho "Fleur" Ogbara on July 15, 1951, in Ikorodu, Nigeria, she came from a prominent Yoruba family. Her mother, Oyindamola, was a wealthy fabric trader and the first of eight wives to her father, Chief Alhaji Lamidi Ogbara.

At age seven, she was sent to Dinorben School for Girls in Llangernyw village in Northern Wales, before returning to Nigeria to attend Muslim High School in Sagamu. She later studied office administration and secretarial skills at Pitman’s Central College in London.

She started her corporate career in 1974 as an executive secretary at construction firm Sijuade Enterprises. She subsequently joined the First National Bank of Chicago as executive secretary to the managing director. When the institution became the International Merchant Bank of Nigeria, she moved to the treasury department and later rose to head of corporate affairs.

After 12 years in banking and administration, Alakija enrolled at London’s Central School of Fashion in 1984. The following year, she launched Supreme Stitches, a fashion house that became the premier haute couture brand for Nigeria’s elite.

Her most prominent client was First Lady Maryam Babangida, wife of then-military ruler Ibrahim Babangida, who retained Alakija as her official stylist.

A casual conversation with another Supreme Stitches client who worked for a multinational oil firm during a flight from London to Lagos sparked Alakija’s interest in the petroleum industry. The client mentioned needing a crude oil supplier.

Upon landing in Lagos, Alakija persuaded the First Lady to introduce her to Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Jibril Aminu to seek an oil export license. At a meeting in Aminu’s Victoria Island office, Alakija pitched her value proposition, only to learn that the Babangida government had banned intermediaries to force multinationals like Shell, Chevron, and Mobil to build local refineries.

Aminu instead advised her to apply for a license to haul refined petroleum products by truck for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. After several rejected applications, Alakija returned to the minister, who encouraged her to venture into oil exploration and production in the Agbami oil field, located 113 kilometers off the Niger Delta coast.

To explore for oil, a company must first secure an OPL before applying for an OML upon discovering commercial quantities. On August 10, 1993, Famfa Limited won an OPL, though the allocated block had been rejected by others due to its ultra-deep-water depth of 4,200 to 5,400 feet.

Lacking the technical capacity to drill at such depths, Alakija faced a setback when her technical partner, Star Oil Fields, abandoned the venture. With her heavy financial investment at risk and the license facing revocation without active exploration, Famfa’s prospects appeared dim.

A turning point arrived in 1996 when Texas-based oil giant Texaco sought local partners through the Department of Petroleum Resources, Nigeria’s industry regulator, which referred the firm to Famfa. Following three months of tough negotiations, Alakija ceded a 40 percent stake in the block to Texaco in exchange for technical expertise and exploration funding.

On August 10, 1996, the joint venture secured OPL 216. In May 1998, Texaco brought in Brazilian oil firm Petrobras, transferring eight percent of its own share to leverage Petrobras’s deep-water expertise.

By November 1998, the partnership struck oil in OPL 216, uncovering an estimated one billion barrels of recoverable reserves, setting the stage for the government seizure and the 12-year court battle that ultimately cemented Alakija’s fortune.