Folorunsho Alakija’s Heart of Gold

“Wealth,” in one of the quotes of Andrew Carnegie, “is not to feed our egos but to feed the hungry and to help people help themselves.”

Without a doubt, Nigerian-born billionaire Folorunsho Alakija’s heart of gold brings to life with great weight, Carnegie’s quote. Or how else does one explain her recent declaration to promote female-owned businesses in Africa with a whopping N1 billion fund through her female empowerment platform, Flourish Africa?

Speaking on the initiative, Alakija said it would focus on supporting the entrepreneurial activities of at least 2,500 female-owned businesses through funding and structured training for five years.

“I’m happy to launch the Flourish Africa N1 billion fund on my 70th birthday as a gift to hardworking and enterprising women. This initiative will focus on empowering women economically and socially for the benefit of their immediate families and the society,” she said.

“A minimum of 500 female micro-entrepreneurs would be trained yearly,” she continued. “After the training,100 entrepreneurs from the pool will be able to access grants to the tune of N2 million each for their businesses from a yearly fund of N200 million.”

Alakija looks forward to empowering one woman at a time, as she strongly believes that women are a crucial part of Africa’s development. According to her, the main objective of Flourish Africa is to create an enabling platform that provides skills development, mentoring and access to the marketplace for female entrepreneurs.

“Many women have the potential to be great. If we form a community of like-minded individuals who share a common goal and purpose, we can pull together and make an impact in every community we find ourselves in, and ultimately flourish,” she added.