The business space in Nigeria is chockful of prominent male figures but there are women who helm top businesses in the country. Women in business in Nigeria.
These women’s successes cut across endeavors including oil and furniture.
A number of them are listed below:
Folorunsho Alakija
The nigerian-born businesswoman is the Executive Vice Chairman of Famfa Oil and Dayspring Property Development Company. She once ranked the second most powerful woman in Africa, second to Nigeria’s former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Alakija has enjoyed educational opportunities in Nigeria and overseas, she oversees the Rose of Sharon Group, too.
With a history in banking and office administration, she launched a business of her own, Supreme Stitches, and it became her first foray into business.
Supreme Stitches morphed into what later became Rose of Sharon House of Fashion.
Alongside that, she founded the Digital Reality Prints Limited – a non-governmental organisation targeted at helping widows and orphans.
She has authored a number of motivational books that talk about relationships, family, and life as a whole.
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Bola Shagaya
Second, on the list is the founder and CEO of Bolmus Group International and is among the wealthiest women on the continent.
Her conglomerate deals in businesses involving real estate to energy to photography and banking.
A graduate of Economics and Accountancy, Shagaya studied at both Ahmadu Bello University and Armstrong College, California.
She worked at the Central Bank of Nigeria in the audit department and moved into the importation of photographic materials.
Also a fashion aficionado, she serves as a patron of the Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria (FADAN).
She serves in other roles such as heading one of the biggest distributors of oil in Nigeria, Practoil Limited; and a member of the board, Unity Bank that is a top rating member on the online stock trading in Nigeria. The company made access to its stocks easier through Forextime, a forex trading broker.
Shagaya was a participant of the National Economic Partnership of Africa Development (NEPAD) and in 2010, she was a Member of the Order of the Niger (MON).
Bimbo Alase
She registered her name on the list of high net worth women in Nigeria through the success of her company Leatherworld that was established in 1994.
Leatherworld has collaborated with big brands originating from the country known for the big fashion names, Italy.
The fast-growing company soon scattered branches across the country, serving as a measurement unit for furniture showrooms.
The company, in 2005, flagged off a modern factory that churned out cutting-edge furniture.
Leatherworld’s business has pushed beyond the Nigerian territory and ventured into other African marketplaces.
An alumna of Pitman College, London, Regent Academy, and the London Design School, Alase has turned the company into a multi-million-dollar brand.
Fifi Ejindu
Following her completion of studies in the United States, she started Starcrest that has birthed subsidiaries including Starcrest Investment Ltd., Starcrest Associates Ltd., and Starcrest Industries Ltd.
She is an architect and one of the richest women in Nigeria.
Ejindu is the great-granddaughter of King James Ekpo Bassey of Cobham town, Calabar, Nigeria.
She became the first female African American to obtain a Bachelor of Architecture from Pratt Institute, and in 2014, received the African Child Nobel Prize and her name inscribed in the book of the Global Women Leaders Hall of Fame.
Women in Nigerian Business
Each of the above-listed women have supported, with their businesses, the country’s economy, and their curricula vitaes swelling with each milestone. They are proof that even though it is referred to as a man’s world, women can also get the edge and equally succeed in the volatile world of business.
