Nigeria’s richest woman, Folorunsho Alakija, and her husband of 30 years, Modupe Alakija, have parted ways, TheWill has reported.
The mother of four and the businessman reportedly no longer live together in their matrimonial home in highbrow Ikoyi, Lagos.
The couple were alleged to have been having frequent squabbles which allegedly necessitated the wealthy woman to demand utmost privacy in her home.
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While her husband was forced to seek accommodation elsewhere, he allegedly lives alone within the same Ikoyi neighbourhood.
Sources reveal that it has not all been smooth sailing for the couple these past few years and they have allegedly been forced to put up a united front because of their status in the society, the report added.
Folorunsho Alakija (born July 15, 1951) is a Nigerian businesswoman and philanthropist. She is the group managing director of The Rose of Sharon Group and the executive vice chairman of Famfa Oil Limited.
Alakija married Modupe Alakija in November 1976. They reside in Lagos, Nigeria, with their four sons. In June 2017, their son Folarin married Iranian model Nazanin Jafarian Ghaissarifar.
Alakija started her 12-year banking career in 1974 as an executive secretary at Sijuade Enterprises in Lagos, Nigeria. She moved to the former First National Bank of Chicago, which later became FinBank now acquired by First City Monument Bank as the Executive Secretary to the Managing Director. She became the new Head of the Corporate Affairs Department of the International Merchant Bank of Nigeria (formerly First National Bank of Chicago) and later became the Office Assistant to the Treasury Department.
Alakija then studied fashion design at the American College in London and the Central School of Fashion. She started a fashion label known as Supreme Stitches, which was later renamed The Rose of Sharon House of Fashion in 1996. She was the president and lifelong trustee of the Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria (FADAN).
In May 1993, Alakija applied for the allocation of an oil prospecting license (OPL). The license to explore for oil on a 617,000-acre block, which is about 100km offshore of Nigeria in the Agbami Field was granted to Alakija’s company, Famfa Limited. In September 1996, Alakija entered into a joint venture agreement with Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of Texaco) transferring a 40 percent stake to Star Deep.
