Why Oil Magnate Folorunsho Alakija Lost Forbes’ Rating

Why Oil Magnate Folorunsho Alakija Lost Forbes’ Rating

Adebayo Adeoye            bayoolunla@gmail.com; 08054680651

Billionaire oil magnate, Folorunsho Alakija, has been in the warm embrace of fortune and grace for years. Alakija, who is the Chairman, FAMFA Group, is also rated among the richest in Africa.

Not a few were pleasantly surprised when she appeared in Forbes magazine where she was adjudged the richest black woman in the world in 2012. The spontaneous reactions that trailed the revelation by Forbes were occasioned by the fact that the net worth of the Lagos State-born woman of substance had skyrocketed to $3.2 billion, thereby making her $500m richer than Oprah Winfrey. With the staggering $3.2 billion, she was also ranked the fourth-richest black person globally, coming after fellow Nigerians, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and Dr. Mike Adenuga.

Surprisingly, Alakija and Angola-born Isabel dos Santos, two women billionaires from Africa, failed to make the 2021 list of Forbes Africa’s Richest People.
The two women featured prominently on the 2020 list of Africa’s richest, were knocked from their perch on this year’s Africa’s Richest People because they were below the $1 billion mark.

While dos Santos was yanked off due to a series of court decisions freezing her assets in Angola and Portugal, Alakija reportedly dropped below the $1 billion mark due to the global crash in oil price.

It was also gathered that the Ikorodu, Lagos-born oil baroness and fashion icon lost her space from the esteemed list because she has no other viable investment aside from oil and gas.

Her other notable venture in the digital printing and real estate sectors, according to investigations, have not been yielding returns strong enough to be tracked by the international financial journal.

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