Africa’s Richest Woman, Folorunso Alakija, Loses Billionaire Status

Pat Stevens/

Africa’s only female billionaire, Folorunso Alakija’s net worth has dropped below the $1billion in 2021 due to lower oil prices, according to Forbes.

Africa, hiterto, could boast of only two women billionaires.

According to Forbes, the continent’s only two women billionaires are Isabel Dos Santos of Angola who is now broke and facing a series of legal charges and Alakija, the Nigerian fashion designer turned Oil Mogul.

Although Forbes pegged her net worth at $1 billion, it also reported that the figure dropped this year due to lower oil prices.

There are no longer any female billionaires (in dollars) in Africa as of January 2021, the magazine reported.

Alakija is the Vice Chairperson of Famfa Oil Exploration Company. The company was incorporated in September 1991 and was awarded the leasehold rights to OPL 216 on the 10th of August 1993.

Her husband, Modupe Alakija, is the chairperson of the company and her children, Dele Alakija and Ladi Alakija, sit on the board as well.

Famfa Oil’s main cash cow is the lucrative Agbami Oil Fields, one of the largest deepwater oil offshore discoveries in Nigeria, which the company believes will be active well beyond 2024.

Famfa Oil is a firm partner of other oil conglomerates in Nigeria. According to its mission statement, they work closely with Chevron and Petrobras.

The company also partner with a couple of indigenous oil companies in Nigeria.

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