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 African 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 percent,
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. The
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 percent fetches them $1
billion, then Alakija’s 60 percent 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 was
born into a wealthy, polygamous Nigerian family. She started out her
professional career in the mid 70s as a secretary at the International Merchant
Bank of Nigeria and in the early 80s, she quit her job and went on 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.
0 comments:
Post a Comment