Nigerian billionaire Folorunso Alakija receives honorary doctorate from UK's Buckingham University

Nigerian oil tycoon Folorunso Alakija, the founder of Famfa Oil Ltd., has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Buckingham in England in recognition of her achievements in business and her contributions to society.

The degree was conferred on Friday, Oct. 16, at a ceremony attended by university officials and guests. Buckingham, which opened in 1976, was the U.K.'s first independent university.

It is Alakija's third honorary doctorate and her first from a British university. Benson Idahosa University in Benin City gave her one in July 2021, and Chrisland University in Abeokuta followed in November 2022.

A fortune built offshore

Alakija, 75, built her fortune in Nigeria's deepwater oil industry after careers in banking and fashion.

In 1993, the Nigerian government granted her company, Famfa, an oil prospecting license for a block about 100 kilometers off the Nigerian coast. The license covered part of what became the Agbami field, one of the country's largest deepwater discoveries. In 1996, Famfa brought in Star Deep Water Petroleum, a Texaco affiliate later absorbed by Chevron Corp., as technical partner and transferred a 40% stake to it. Agbami began producing in 2008.

The government later laid claim to a large share of the block, first taking 40% and then a further 10%, and later sought half the field. Alakija challenged the claims in court, and Nigeria's Supreme Court ruled in Famfa's favor in 2012.

She is executive vice chairman of Famfa Oil and group managing director of the Rose of Sharon Group, the family's holding company.

From secretary to designer

Alakija was born in Ikorodu, near Lagos, on July 15, 1951, and was educated partly in Wales and London. She began her career in 1974 as an executive secretary at Sijuade Enterprises in Lagos, then moved into banking, working at the First National Bank of Chicago and at International Merchant Bank of Nigeria.

She later trained in fashion design in London and founded the label Supreme Stitches, which she renamed Rose of Sharon House of Fashion in 1996. She served as president of the Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria and remains a trustee of the group.

Philanthropy and education

Alakija founded the Rose of Sharon Foundation in 2008 to support widows and orphans through scholarships, business grants and other aid. Her giving has increasingly focused on education. She donated a skills acquisition center to Yaba College of Technology in Lagos, and in 2025 she funded the Modupe and Folorunso Alakija Medical Research and Training Hospital at Osun State University, named for her and her husband.

She served as chancellor of Osun State University for a decade, from 2016 until March 2026, after being reappointed for a second five-year term in 2021.

Alakija, a Christian minister who holds the title of apostle, married lawyer Modupe Alakija in 1976. The couple have four sons and live in Lagos.