Dazzling wings of steel! Forget recession, some Nigerian billionaires still maintain private jets

•There is a huge gulf between the affluent and pretenders to wealth

The Capital NG>>>   These men are institutions on their own. Besides their intimidating wealth and fluorishing business concerns, they jointly constitute a formidable force in any political clime. Having attained great wealth and eminence by dint of hard work, initiative and perseverance, they have become so entrenched in the socioeconomic and political systems that they have become systems on their own, with the capacity to exert considerable influence or pressure on the virtually every sector in the country with interesting results.

Folorunso Alakija: Working with faith

She has dined with kings and queens, presidents and business leaders from across the world. She built an oil empire from the scratch. But Mrs. Folorunso Alakija, Nigeria’s richest woman, said the bed-rock of her enormous wealth as an entrepreneur is down to one h thing most: Faith in God!

“I look to God for every step I want to take in life,” she tells Guardian Woman.

Born in 1951 to the family of Chief L. A. Ogbara in Ikorodu, Lagos State, Alakija took the first step into the world of entrepreneurship by setting up Supreme Stitches, a tailoring company, which later morphed into Rose of Sharon House of Fashion. Her oil company, Famfa Oil, was granted a license to explore oil in 1993.