Folorunso Alakija

Folorunso Alakija was born in Ikorodu, Nigeria, in 1951, one of many children of a businessman with several wives. She studied in England as a teenager, trained as a secretary, and worked in Nigerian banks through the 1970s before turning to fashion, founding a clothing label, Supreme Stitches, that dressed some of Lagos's wealthiest women through the 1980s.

In 1993 she applied for an oil prospecting licence in what was then considered marginal deep-water territory off the Nigerian coast. The licence was granted, and she brought in a foreign partner to fund exploration since she had no background in petroleum engineering. When the block, known as OPL 216, proved to hold the large Agbami oilfield, the government tried to cut her company's stake sharply. She spent years in court to hold on to it, eventually settling for a reduced but still substantial share once production began in 2008.

The case made her one of the best-known examples of a Nigerian entrepreneur who moved from an unrelated trade into the country's dominant industry, and one of the continent's richest women. She has since diversified into printing, real estate and agriculture.

Alongside the business, she has spoken often about her Christian faith and has funded churches, widows' support programmes and scholarships. She continues to run her companies from Lagos and describes the Agbami legal fight as the defining test of her career.