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Meet 69 Yr Old Nigerian Apostle With the Most Expensive House in Africa (Photos).

Brace yourself for this one.

By Jide OkonjoPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Brace yourself for this one.

Houses go up every single day around the world. Real estate is by far one of the most expensive and lucrative businesses in the world – very much so as well in Africa.

So for a person to have their house described as “The most expensive house in Africa”, it begs a number of questions – how does this house look? Why is it so expensive? Who owns the house?

And then, most of the time when it is found out that the most expensive house in Africa belongs to a WOMAN, the questions only multiply from there.

Today, we’ll be looking at the real life Nigerian Woman Who Owns The Most Expensive House in Africa. I’ll tell you who she is, a couple of fun facts, and of course, we’ll talk about the house.

Are you ready to dive in? Then let’s go!

**Before reading on, please make sure to like and follow my Facebook page so you don't miss out on any new and interesting lists, articles, and stories that I post every single day. I have a really fun page. If you like my page, you will have fun too. So what's stopping you? Like my page and let's have fun together!

Meet Folorunsho Alakija

Folorunsho Alakija is one of the most interesting women today in Africa. Born on 15th July 1951 (69 years), she has had quite the life starting from the day she was born.

Folorunsho was born the 8th child into a family of Chief L.A. Ogbara, a man that went on to have 52 children through 8 wives. She was born in Ikorodu, Lagos State and went to nursery school in Our Ladies of Apostles, Lagos from 1955 – 1958 before travelling to the United Kingdom at the very young age of 7 years to continue her primary education at Dinorben School for Girls in Wales. She eventually came back to Nigeria for secondary school before heading back to the UK for university before starting her career back here in Nigeria.

How did she get her money?

Believe it or not, Folorunsho started out working a very regular job – she was secretary at Sijuade Enterprises, Lagos. From there, she moved to what was then called First National Bank of Chicago, which later became FinBank which is now acquired by FCMB (First City Monument Bank) and she worked there for a couple of years before establishing a tailoring company called Supreme Stitches.

She grew this small tailoring company into a household business under the new name “Rose of Sharon House of Fashion”. But that’s not where the majority of her money came from.

The majority of her money came from oil – but in an interesting way.

In May of 1993, Folorunsho applied for the allocation of an oil prospecting license (basically, a license to explore for oil) for her company, Famfa Limited. The license was given to her and her company started exploring for oil on a 617-000 acre block southeast of Lagos offshore of Nigeria in the Agbami Field of the Central Niger Delta.

3 years later in 1996, she partnered with Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited, a subsidiary of Texaco, and appointed the company as a technical adviser for the exploration transferring 40% of her 100% stake to Star Deep.

Then – they struck oil!

Once the word got out that Alakija and her team had struck oil, the Nigerian government came and snatched a 40% stake. Later, they took an additional 10%. For twelve years, she fought the government in court but the government argued that if Alakija and her family were allowed to keep their bloc, they stood to make – get this - $10,000,000 A DAY.

Alakija persisted and guess what? She won!

So $10,000,000 a day every day…Alakija quickly became a billionaire business tycoon and has since been listed among Forbes’ Most Powerful Women in the World.

How does she spend her money?

Well, two major things come to mind.

One – her house.

Folorunsho Alakija has been famously credited for having the most expensive house in Africa. Created by Julius Berger, the building has a unique architecture and is simply stunning to look at.

She also reportedly has multiple homes in the UK and spends so much money abroad that even in the Daily Mail UK had to do a story about it.

Second – her son’s wedding.

When Folorunsho Alakija’s son, Folarin Alakija, married his Iranian model wife Nazanin Ghaissarifar, the wedding between the two held at Blenheim Palace - yes, a PALACE - in England is reported till this day as "one of the world’s most expensive weddings". Look at these pictures – that’s crazy money!

Is she really an apostle?

Yes. Remember earlier when I told you about her fashion business, Rose of Sharon House of Fashion…well, extending from that, Folorunsho has a church named Rose of Sharon Glorious Ministry International and she is indeed an apostle in that church.

It’s very surprising to many and it almost sounds impossible to believe – but it’s true!

As I said, Folorunsho Alakija to me is one of the most interesting women in the world and I can keep on telling you story after story about her. Maybe another day. Follow my page below so you never miss out.

That’s All.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this story. Don’t forget to like my page if you don’t already for more stories like this, the fun never ends!

To catch up on other content you might have missed, click here.

Until next time, have a wonderful rest of your day.

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About the Creator

Jide Okonjo

I have ONE account and MANY interests. My page is a creative hodgepodge of:

🇳🇬 Nigerian news stories for my dedicated Nigerian readers.

🎥 Movie and music recommendations, listicles, and critiques

📀 Op-eds, editorial features, fiction

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