16 Facts About Folorunso Alakija

Chief Folorunso Alakija was born on 15 July 1951 and is a Nigerian businesswoman and philanthropist.

Folorunso Alakija is currently the group managing director of The Rose of Sharon Group and serves as executive vice chairman of Famfa Oil Limited.

Folorunso Alakija is from the Yoruba ethnicity of south-western Nigeria.

At the age of ten, Folorunso Alakija traveled to the United Kingdom for her education.

Folorunso Alakija then returned to England for her secretarial studies at Pitman Central College, London.

Folorunso Alakija started her 12-year banking career in 1974 as an executive secretary at Sijuade Enterprises in Lagos, Nigeria.

Folorunso Alakija moved to the former First National Bank of Chicago as the Executive Secretary to the Managing Director.

Folorunso Alakija became the Head of the Corporate Affairs Department of the International Merchant Bank of Nigeria, and later became the Office Assistant to the Treasury Department.

Folorunso Alakija then studied fashion design at the American College in London and the Central School of Fashion.

Folorunso Alakija started a fashion label called Supreme Stitches, renamed in 1996 as The Rose of Sharon House of Fashion.

Folorunso Alakija was the president and lifelong trustee of the Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria.

In May 1993, Folorunso Alakija applied for the allocation of an oil prospecting license.

In September 1996, Folorunso Alakija entered into a joint venture agreement with Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited, transferring a 40 percent stake to Star Deep.

Folorunso Alakija established the Rose of Sharon Foundation, which was intended to grant widows and orphans scholarships and business grants.

Folorunso Alakija has donated a skills acquisition center to Yaba College of Technology, a higher educational institution located in Lagos.

In June 2017, their son, Folarin Folorunso Alakija, married Iranian model Nazanin Jafarian Ghaissarifar.