‘My Father Had 8 Wives & 52 Children’ – Folorunsho Alakija Opens Up on Her Background, Marriage & More

Nigerian billionaire businesswoman and mum, Folorunsho Alakija, 65, said to be the richest woman in Africa, opened up on her background, her almost 40-year marriage, being a grandmother and more in an interview with Punch.

Read excerpts below.

On her background

“The word privileged background is relative. But I can say that we were comfortable. I come from a polygamous family of a father with eight wives, 52 children. I’m child number eight, Muslim background. One of my half sisters and I were the first children of my father to be sent abroad to go and study at the tender ages of six and seven. I was seven while she was six. I would say that sending children abroad at that time at such young ages proved that the family was affluent. Usually, it was people in their 20s or 30s that went abroad to study in those days-. It was very rare to find children of about six years being sent abroad to study at the time. So we were all over the newspapers the day we were leaving. It was big news. I still have photographs of the day we were leaving in my autobiography where my dad, my mum and my step mum were seeing us off. We travelled by sea. In those days, people travelled by sea, and it took us 14 days to get to England.

After four years, we returned to Nigeria for further studies. My parents were in the textile business for a good part of our lives. There was a time my father was also in the business of leather sandals and he was making a lot of money. There was also a time that he was dealing in stockfish. He was a very big businessman and there was hardly anything that he touched that didn’t turn to gold.  He only read up to Standard Six but had his wits about him. He was a very jovial man but business was something that he was born to do and he excelled in every area that had to do with business. He invested in shares, real estate and things like that.   By the time he died, he had enough houses to go round all of his children that were still alive – 46 of us. My mother and my step mother were also into textile trading and they placed orders with him which they in turn sold to market women.

When my siblings and I came home on holidays, we had to open the store and be my mother’s assistants in our store. So we got quite proficient in the merchandising area of textile. We learnt how to combine colours and be creative with textiles before they were sent to my dad’s office for him to make orders from Switzerland and the Far East. So we got to interact with those who would come to town from neighbouring countries, usually early, before other stores opened. So my mum always encouraged my sister and I to make sure that our store was opened very early. My mum was very strict. She taught us how to make money so that was how I cut my teeth as much as trading and being a businesswoman is concerned.”

On her almost 40-year marriage

“If anyone of us is abroad, for instance, the two of us would make sure that we call each other a minimum of twice a day. We have spoken three times already today. If it wasn’t that I was running late for the interview, I would have picked up the phone again to ask him to buy me three brushes but I had to give the job to my assistant to do. So every little thing, we are talking throughout the day…We are lovers, friends, brother and sister…He is extremely shy. He does not like publicity. I’m an extrovert; I don’t mind publicity. I like to throw parties; he likes to listen to music.”

On secrets to her successful marriage considering the rate of failed marriages

“A lot of things make marriages break. What I have noticed over the years is that a marriage doesn’t break suddenly or in a day; it is a gradual process. And the earlier you nip it in the bud, the better. And it is always better to know what the dos and don’ts of marriage are before you get into it so that you don’t get your fingers burnt and so that you can enjoy rather than endure your marriage. One of the tenements of marriage is that you must communicate with one another. If you do not talk to one another regularly enough, your love can begin to grow cold. You may begin to drift apart…

When you quarrel, it won’t help. But when there is nowhere to turn and you end up kicking one another, you will make up quickly.   One of the things I do to break the ice rather than let things degenerate is to ask my husband to help do my zip even when I can do it by myself. I have broken the ice… Make sure that you set up the values that you will use to run your home and bring up your children. I greet my husband good morning with a kiss.  There are different ways of showing submission…”

On being a grandmother

“[I’m] absolutely proud! But then, there is no way the grandchildren can take the place of your children. They are another level of joy that you cannot really put a finger on, but each time you look at them and interact with them, they remind you of the old days when you had your children so you tend to spoil them…you have a softer spot for them because it is new and a different level of joy, they have a special place in your heart, so you tend to be a bit partial.”

On being known as the richest woman in Africa

“I’ve never called myself that and I just live my life. I do whatever I need to do with all joy and pleasure. It has not changed me; it will not change me and there is no amount of money that can change me, my husband and my children. That is the way we have lived our lives; we will continue being who we are as a family.”