#EachforEqual: Eight influential Nigerian women who blazed the trail

What kind of world would we be having, if women were not there?

Every 8th of March is about women. Women that have blazed the trail and done the Nation proud home and abroad. Indeed both genders complement each other but they are a constant reminder of the creator's wonder.

Here, we would be taking a look at eight Nigerian women that have done well for themselves home and abroad:

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala:

Just yesterday, Iweala's 33 years of financial expertise came to the fore again as she was appointed a member of the South Africa's presidential economic advisory council. This is in addition to her appointment to the Boards of Standard Chartered Bank, Twitter, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), and the African Risk Capacity (ARC).



The 65-year-old arrived the US in 1973 as a teenager to study at Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude with an AB in Economics in 1976. In 1981, she earned her Ph.D. in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a thesis titled Credit policy, rural financial markets, and Nigeria's agricultural development. She received an International Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), that supported her doctoral studies.

Her 25-year career at the World Bank has brought her to prominence in her own country where she served twice as Nigeria’s Finance Minister and also as Minister of Foreign Affairs. She was the first female to hold both positions. During her first term as Minister of Finance under President Obasanjo’s Administration, she spearheaded negotiations with the Paris Club of Creditors that led to the wiping out of US$30 billion of Nigeria’s debt, including the outright cancellation of US$18 billion.

Okonjo-Iweala was also instrumental in helping Nigeria obtain its first-ever sovereign credit rating (of BB minus) from Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's in 2006. Her love for non-profit has been demonstrated in her work with ARC, Chairing the World Bank’s Development Committee, serving as a board member of the Rockefeller Foundation amongst others

She published a memoir in 2018 titled "Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The story behind the headlines."

Joke Silva

Joke Silva is a Nollywood legend that began acting in the early 1990s. In 1998 she had a major role, starring opposite Colin Firth and Nia Long in the British-Canadian film The Secret Laughter of Women. In 2006, she won "Best Actress in a Leading Role" at the 2nd Africa Movie Academy Awards for her performance in Women's Cot, and "Best Actress in a Supporting Role" at the 4th Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2008 for her performance as a grandmother in White Waters.

Her mother, Adebimbola Silva, a pioneering doctor, died in July 2015. Her father was a lawyer. She attended Holy Child College in Lagos.



Silva has starred in numerous films and television series in both the English and Yoruba languages. One of her earliest roles was in the 1990 English film Mind Bending. In 1993, she appeared in Owulorojo, followed by Violated in 1995.

Her golden years were in 2006 where she was awarded the "Best Actress in a Leading Role" award at the 2nd Africa Movie Academy Awards for her role in Women's Cot. Later that year, Silva starred opposite Genevieve Nnaji in Mildred Okwo's action-thriller 30 Days, which received 10 nominations at the Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2008. She also narrated Jeta Amata's Anglo-Nigerian production "The Amazing Grace," which was shot in Calabar. The film was lauded by critics, and was nominated for 11 African Movie Academy Awards.

Mo Abudu

Described by Forbes as "Africa's Most Successful Woman," Mo has had an illustrious career spanning Human Resources, entrepreneurship, venture capitalism and philanthropy.

Adjudged to be the Oprah Winfrey of Africa, Abudu is many things. She is a talk show hostess, TV producer, human resource management consultant, media personality. Mo Abudu is the founder and CEO of Ebony Life, Africa’s first global black entertainment network which began broadcasting on 1st July, 2013 on Multichoice DSTV Channel 165. Abudu started out professionally as a recruitment consultant in 1987 with Atlas Recruitment Consultancy firm in UK. Before moving to human resources and then, Entertainment.



She is the Executive Producer and host of Moment with Mo. The talk show airs across 49 African countries and on a cable TV in UK. Mo Abudu has played host to many A list celebrities, governors, presidents, Nobel Laureates, including the US Secretary of State; Hilary Clinton and the managing director of IMF- Christine Lagarde.

Moments with Mo is not her only creation. Mo Abudu has created other TV shows with the same theme of telling Africa’s story but targeting different demographics. The Debaters, one of her creations is a reality TV show that gives African youths a voice. There is also Naija Diamonds; an award-winning documentary series that celebrates unsung heroes of Nigeria which is proudly sponsored by Diamond Bank.

Folorunso Alakija

In the world of billionaires, women are not usually in that circle, but not Folorunso Alakija. She is a billionaire involved in the fashion, oil, real estate, and printing industries. She is the group managing director of The Rose of Sharon Group which consists of The Rose of Sharon Prints & Promotions Limited, Digital Reality Prints Limited and the executive vice-chairman of Famfa Oil Limited. She also has a majority stake in DaySpring Property Development company. Alakija is ranked by Forbes as the richest woman in Nigeria with an estimated net worth of $1 billion.

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—now referred to as OPL 216—was granted to Alakija's company, Famfa Limited. The block is located approximately 220 miles south-east of Lagos and 70 miles offshore of Nigeria in the Agbami Field of the central Niger Delta. In September 1996, she entered into a joint venture agreement with Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of Texaco) and appointed the company as a technical adviser for the exploration of the license, transferring 40 percent of her 100 percent stake to Star Deep.



Once word got out they struck oil, the Nigerian government snatched a 40% stake. Later, they took an additional 10%. For twelve years, she fought the government in court. The government argument was if Alakija and family were allowed to keep their bloc, they stood to make $10 million a day. Still, she persisted and in the end she won.

As of 2014, she is listed as the 96th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. In May 2015 two Nigerian women, Finance Minister Ngozi Okonji-Iweala and Alakija were listed among the world's 100 most powerful women according to Forbes. Alakija was 86th on the list.

Ibukun Awosika

Ibukun Awosika is a Nigerian businesswoman, author, and motivational speaker. She currently serves as Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria.

Ibukun completed her primary and secondary school education at St. Pauls African Church Primary School, Lagos and Methodist Girls' High School, Yaba respectively before she proceeded to the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) where she graduated with a B.Sc in Chemistry. She holds post-graduate and MBA certificates upon the completion of several business programmes at the Lagos Business School and IESE Business School.



Her enterprising nature led her to establish a furniture manufacturing company called Quebees Limited in 1989 before it evolved into The Chair Centre Limited and later SOKOA Chair Centre Limited, following a venture merge with SOKOA S.A and Guaranty Trust Bank in 2004.

Ibukun is a member of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, a member of the board of Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund and former Chairperson, Board of Trustees of Women in Management, Business and Public Service. In 2011, she co-founded the Afterschool Graduate Development Centre, a career centre established in order to checkmate the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria.

On September 7, 2015, Ibukun became the first woman to be appointed Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria following the resignation of Prince Ajibola Afonja.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Aged 42, Adichie would always be regarded as the harbinger of feminism in Nigeria. What began as a promising medicine and pharmacy career at the University of Nigeria only lasted about a year and a half.

At the age of 19, Adichie left Nigeria for the United States to study communications and political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia. She soon transferred to Eastern Connecticut State University to be near her sister Uche, who had a medical practice in Coventry, Connecticut. While the novelist was growing up in Nigeria, she was not used to being identified by the colour of her skin which suddenly changed when she arrived in the United States for college. As a black African in America, Adichie was suddenly confronted with what it meant to be a person of color in the United States. Race as an idea became something that she had to navigate and learn. She writes about this in her novel Americanah. She received a bachelor's degree from Eastern Connecticut State University, with the distinction of summa cum laude in 2001.



In 2003, she completed a master's degree in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University. In 2008, she received a Master of Arts degree in African studies from Yale University.

Adichie was a Hodder fellow at Princeton University during the 2005–2006 academic year. In 2008, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She was also awarded a 2011–2012 fellowship by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.

Ngozi Adichie's original and initial inspiration came from Chinua Achebe, after reading late Prof. Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart", at the age of 10. Adichie was inspired by seeing her own life represented in the pages. However a greater part of writing spans across her experience abroad and the Biafran war where her family lost everything. Hence the recurrent theme in most of her books and famed speeches.

Her publications include: Purple Hibiscus, 2003, Half of a Yellow Sun, 2006, The Thing Around Your Neck, 2009, Americanah, 2013. Essays are; We Should All Be Feminists, 2014, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, 2017.

Tara Fela-Durotoye

Tara is a Nigerian beauty entrepreneur and lawyer. A pioneer in the bridal makeup profession in Nigeria, she launched the first bridal directory in 1999, set up international standard makeup studios and established the first makeup school in Nigeria.

Tara Fela-Durotoye attended Command Children School, Victoria Island and proceeded to Nigeria Navy Secondary School, Ojo for her School Leaving Certificate.

She is the founder and CEO of House of Tara International and creator of the Tara Orekelewa Beauty range, Inspired Perfume and the H.I.P Beauty range. She is considered a major force in the Nigerian female entrepreneurship community having created an impact business that has empowered tens of thousands of beauty entrepreneurs through the "Tara Beauty Entrepreneur" initiative. She continues to be a thought leader and major influencer through several in classroom and online courses that focus on sharing her 20+ year experience with other budding entrepreneurs.



She has received several national and international Awards for her contribution to the industry and active role in Entrepreneurship and Empowerment; the Most Outstanding Business Woman of the Year 2018 by the African Economy Builders Awards Abidjan. Also in 2018, Tara received the African Makeup Icon by Ghana Makeup Awards as well as the Leadership Award for Entrepreneurship by Harvard Business School Association of Nigeria, and the most recent in 2019 the award of excellence for Social Impact and Job Creation, a National Recognition by the Vice President of Nigeria.

House of Tara International is a company that is spread across three main streams – The Make-up Studio, The Make-up Academy and the Tara product line which comprises product lines and makeup kits. They also specialise in the distribution, retail and channel management of cosmetics.

Olajumoke Olufunmilola Adenowo

Adenowo is regarded as Africa's Starchitect and the face of Architecture in Nigeria. Her parents were both professors, one of History and one of Criminology. She lived on campus at the Obafemi Awolowo University. It was designed by Bauhaus trained architect, Arieh Sharon between 1962-1972. Living in, and then eventually studying at the University encouraged her approach to architecture at a young age.

At 14 she enrolled in Obafemi Awolowo University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Architecture at age 19. As an undergraduate she won the prize for Best Student Design. She obtained her Master's of Science in Architecture, with distinction, from the same university in 1991.

Adenowo has stated that her interest in architecture was ignited by visits to Paris and the Palais de Versailles as a young child, as well as living on the Obafemi Awolowo University campus. These inspired her design philosophy - the core lesson being that in its functionality, architecture must be sensitive to its climactic, technological, infrastructural and physical contexts.

After graduating from university, Adenowo was hired as an Assistant Architect at Towry Coker Associates. She then practiced as an architect at Lagos at Femi Majekodunmi Associates. She worked on the Federal Ministry of Finance project in Abuja at the age of 23.



Adenowo founded her own boutique architecture and interior design firm in 1994, AD Consulting when she was 25 years old. Since its inception, AD Consulting has been involved in the design and construction of more than 70 projects. These include Nigerian government buildings, private residences, healthcare facilities, industrial campuses, and corporate and financial institutions. AD's clients include Coca-Cola and L’Oreal.

In parallel to founding AD Consulting, Adenowo also founded and ran Advantage Energy, an Oil and Gas services firm. She is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a member of the African Leadership Network.

In 2019, Olajumoke Adenowo was appointed a Visiting Professor at the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM) in Germany. She was honored as a Laureate and a Guest Scientist at the Chair of Theory, History of Architecture and Art & Design arm of the university's Department of Architecture. This program is established in collaboration with the Bavarian Ministry of Education.