Nigerian businesswoman and philanthropist, Folorunsho Alakija was born in July 15, 1951.

She is the group managing director of The Rose of Sharon Group and the executive vice chairman of Famfa Oil Limited.

Alakija relocated to the United Kingdom when she was 10-years-old for her education. She went back to Nigeria to attend the Muslim High School in Shagamu. She later returned to England for her secretarial studies at Pitman's Central College in London.

She began her 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 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 and later became the Office Assistant to the Treasury Department.

Being a woman with multiple potential, she later studied fashion design at the American College in London and the Central School of Fashion. She made her own fashion label known as The Rose of Sharon House of Fashion.

In 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 transferring a 40 percent stake to Star Deep. Alakija has been listed among the Forbes World's 100 most powerful women a lot of times.