Nigeria's richest woman Folorunsho Alakija ends her decade as UNIOSUN chancellor and hands over to BOVAS founder Victoria Samson

Folorunsho Alakija's decade as chancellor of Osun State University has come to a close, with Osun Governor Ademola Adeleke naming Victoria Samson, the founder of BOVAS Oil and Gas Company, as her successor on May 10.

Alakija, the fashion entrepreneur and oil heiress who Forbes has repeatedly listed among Africa's wealthiest women, served as UNIOSUN chancellor from 2016 to 2026. Her tenure ended formally on March 18, 2026. The state government and university management paid a formal appreciation visit to the Alakija family on May 8, with Adeleke commending what he described as a decade of distinguished service.

The lasting institutional marker of her tenure is the Modupe and Folorunso Alakija Medical Research and Training Hospital, a multi-billion-naira facility donated to the university during her chancellorship. Adeleke described the hospital as a living legacy that would serve Osun State for generations.

Samson, widely known as Mama BOVAS, becomes the third chancellor in the university's history. She was born on December 5, 1949, in Iree in Boripe Local Government Area of Osun State. Under her leadership and that of her husband, BOVAS Oil and Gas Company expanded from a single filling station into a nationwide network of more than 200 petroleum service stations, employing over 2,000 Nigerians as of December 2025.

Her commercial record in Nigeria's downstream petroleum sector is notable on several counts. She holds the Texaco petroleum franchise and made history as the first Nigerian to win the Texaco Latin America and West Africa Award for Best Overall Dealer in 1990, having recorded the highest sales volume across the region in a year when the competition was open to dealers from two continents.

Adeleke praised her record in the petroleum industry and described her appointment as the beginning of a new leadership era for the institution. "We celebrate you and present you as a symbol of decency, honesty, integrity, and humanity in our society," the governor said in a statement announcing the appointment.

UNIOSUN was established in 2006 and is spread across six campuses in Osogbo, Ejigbo, Ifetedo, Ikire, Ipetu-Ijesa and Okuku. Its first chancellor was Ooni Okunade Sijuade of Ile-Ife. The appointment of two successive prominent Nigerian businesswomen to the chancellorship reflects the university's orientation toward connecting its governance to figures with significant commercial standing in the private sector.

Alakija's own commercial history has followed a different arc from most of her peers. She built a fashion empire in the 1980s before acquiring through her company Famfa Oil a large share of an OPL 216 oil block off the Nigerian coast, a stake the Nigerian government attempted to revoke in 2001 before the courts eventually upheld her claim. The legal battle ran for years and the resolution left her one of the most prominent oil asset holders among Nigeria's private wealth class.