I have Passion for Fashion— Folorunsho Alakija

In November 2012, Folorunsho Alakija made Forbes list of Africa’s 40 richest.

With a net worth of $600m, Folorunsho Alakija was announced Nigeria’s richest woman. If you think this would make her talk about money or how she made hers in this interview with Punch, you are wrong.

The business mogul is however quick to define wealth in her own words: “Wealth is beyond money and affluence. It can be classified as a large amount of something, ranging from experience to talent. It is a word that quantifies and qualifies anything. For instance, you could say someone has a wealth of interesting qualities. Many people have said the same to me because there are so many parts to who I am, who I have become and who God has created me to be. I am a businesswoman, a fashion designer and milliner by profession.

“The word wealth qualifies and measures one’s success in achieving set targets and goals, prosperity, and blessings. Blessings can be in the form of good health, the education of children and even living to a ripe old age. Therefore, a wealthy woman is someone who has been able to achieve some, all or even more than these because grace for wealth is unlimited from our God. He desires to bless us all on a daily basis.  We just need to learn how to key into it so that we do not limit ourselves,” she says.

The executive vice chairman, Famfa Oil Limited, she founded Supreme Stitches, which later changed to Rose of Sharon House of Fashion, a fashion label that catered to upscale clientele.

The outfit, she explains, was stopped 12 years ago and metamorphosed into the Rose of Sharon Prints/ Promotions. She gives reasons for this: “I heard the call of the Lord into Christian ministry many years ago but I was reluctant to yield to the call.

“I believe that my passion for fashion was hugely responsible as I was definitely enjoying what I was doing for a living, although in hindsight, it was really a fulfilling and successful hobby because I was not dependent on it. The zeal to succeed in whatever I decide to do, drove the business. I don’t design clothes any more except the odd ones I may choose to design when I commission such through another fashion designer.”

She also runs a non-profit organisation, the Rose of Sharon Foundation, which she says has changed the lives of hundreds of widows, their children and orphans.