Africa’s richest women

Given the opportunities at hand, women of today have all the reasons to smile. Gender equality and empowerment have brought positive changes in African communities.

Access to education, wealth inheritance from parents, owning property are among the privileges enjoyed by women contrary to what happened in the past.

In Africa, women are making history in the department of wealth creation. Smart women are tapping and releasing the millionaire inside them. They have pressed the right buttons and opened the doors of success. Following www.therichest.com list of top 10 richest women in Africa, Woman shares four names from the list and their secrets to success.

Folorunso Alakija

Folorunso Alakija, 63, beat Oprah Winfrey in October last year as the richest black woman in the world. She owns FAMFA Oil Company located in Nigeria.

Hajia Bola Shagaya, 55, also comes from Nigeria. Her career started with the audit department of the Central Bank of Nigeria before venturing into commercial activities in 1983. Both women are married and blessed with four children each and are worth $600 million each.

When asked whether money affects her married life, Alakija was quoted by www.fabulous-city.com as saying that money is something you acquire along the line. Only love keeps people together. “From the time that we started courting, it has been like that, and we thank God that to His glory, we’ve known one another for 40 years. I pray also that God continues to unite us. I believe that if love is the foundation of a union, God will prove himself faithful,” she said this about her husband of over 35 years who works a lawyer.

She also said that every married person has a duty to ensure that they make their marriage work because nobody dragged them into it. Even looking after the children in that marriage calls for both parents to impact into them the skills, love, knowledge and talent required to enable them to live fulfilled lives. When we shirk our responsibilities, we’re being careless.

Alakija who was born into a wealthy family, quit her secretary job in the late 1980s at the International Merchant Bank of Nigeria and went to study fashion and design at the American College, London and the Central School of Fashion.

Alakija who believes that money has nothing to do with love as love comes from within, owns a 60 per cent stake in her company valued at around $7.3 billion.

In September 1996, she entered into a joint venture agreement with Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited and appointed the company as a technical adviser for the exploration of the licence, transferring 40 per cent of her 100 per cent stake to Star Deep.

As she returned from London, she started supreme stitches, a premium Nigerian fashion label, selling high-end Nigerian clothing to fashionable wives of military bigwigs and society women. In 1993, her company, Famfa Oil, was awarded an oil prospecting licence.

Bola Shagaya

The other fashion enthusiast is Bola Shagaya who is also a top notch businesswoman. Bola took her tertiary education at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Armstrong College in California where she did economics and accountancy.

Bola Shagaya started with the importation and distribution of photographic materials and she introduced the Konica brand of photographic materials into the Nigerian market and West Africa. Her investments are also in some other countries.

President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GCFR) in 2010 awarded her the title of Member of the Order of the Niger (MON).

She serves various boards and a foundation of her own creation and is the President of the South African Mining Development Association, Vice Chairman of the Minerals and Mining Development Board advising the Minister of Minerals and Energy.

According to the-aristocrat.com Bola Shagaya is referred to as AGIP (All Government In Power).

 The name comes from her close ties with Nigeria’s political figures and military. It is alleged that she was the one who advised Dame Patience Goodluck Jonathan to go for Cosmetic surgery.

During the ruling time of the former President Ibrahim Babangida she also had a very close relationship with the family.

Her businesses include real estate, banking, photography, communications and she also has a hand in the oil sector.

Just like Alakija, Bola is also the managing director of Practoil Limited, one of the largest importers and distributors of base oil in Nigeria, serving local lubricant blending plants. She is currently on the board of Unity Bank (Nigeria) and has been for over eight years.

 Bola Shagaya is a patron of the Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria, (FADAN), and a fashion and art enthusiast who supports and encourages the fashion and art industry.

Mama Ngina Kenyatta

Mama Ngina Kenyatta in her 80s has managed to safeguard and multiply her late husband’s investments. These include real estate, hospitality, education, manufacturing, farming and banking.

Not much is said about her early education; however, she managed to spread Sh86 billion, in real estate, banking and hospitality sectors and is among the three women that made it to the Africa’s billionaire club. She is the wife of the late Jomo Kenyatta and mother of Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta.

She also owns thousands of acres of prime land across Kenya that was acquired by the late president Kenyatta in the ‘60s and ‘70s. She also holds majority shares in several companies like Commercial Bank of Africa, Heritage and Brookside Dairies. According to www.therichest.com, Ngina is worth $500 and her family is among the richest in Africa.

Bridgette Radebe

Bridgette Radebe, 54, holds a BA in Political Science. She started as a mine worker in the 1980s and is known for being the first South Africa’s black female mining entrepreneur.

Radebe is mentioned as the sister of mining tycoon Patrice Motsepe another billionaire in South Africa worth $3.3 billion. After working hard as a mining worker, she founded Mmakau Mining company which has been very successful. Its operations include coal, chrome, gold, uranium and platinum.

In 2008 she received the International Businessperson of the Year Award from the Global Foundation for Democracy for her success and her achievements in eliminating poverty in South Africa. Radebe has $100 million in her name.

Radebe is the founder and Board of Trustee member of the New Africa Mining Fund, and participated in the design of the South African Mining Charter and present mining legislation. She is married to ANC minister and South African communist Party leader Jeff Radebe.

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