Folorunsho Alakija
Folorunsho Alakija was born on July 15 1951, in Ikorodu, Lagos State. She originates from a large family: her dad, Chief L. A. Ogbara, had 8 wives and 52 children in his lifetime. She was the second surviving child, her mom was the first wife.
She and her younger sister were sent to school abroad when she was 7 years old. They went to a school in Wales, a private school for girls in Northern Wales, and they were the only coloured (black) girls in the school. And because their fellow mates couldn't pronounce their names, they coined them names - Flo for Folorunsho and Doyle for Doyin.
They were in the school for 4 years, and at age 11, she and Doyle moved back to Nigeria at the request of their parent,s who didn't want them to lose their African values, culture and tradition.
In 1976, Folorunsho Alakija got married to her loving husband. The couple have 4 kids, all boys. All of them were schooled abroad and are all engaged in one way or the other in the family business.
Folorunsho’s 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 1984, she went to the UK to study fashion design.
A year after her training, she came back to Nigeria and started her fashion house, Supreme Stitches, at a 3-bedroom apartment in Surulere, Lagos. A year after establishing the company, she emerged as the best designer in the country in 1986.
On Folorunsho’s involvement in the oil and gas industry, it is known that through a friend whom she met while she 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, which was sure the bloc had potential, as they had done their homework well. After negotiations that spanned 3 months, they agreed on terms, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Later, Texaco became Chevron, and they struck oil in commercial quantities.
