The world of business is typically considered to be dominated by men, but several women have taken it by storm. Nigerian women are not only holding up well in the business world, but many stand at the top as the best.
Countless women have ventured into entrepreneurship, and several have done well, but only a few can be considered outstanding. In this article, we will look at only the best: the top 10 female entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
1. Folorunsho Alakija
Folorunsho Alakija is an entrepreneur and philanthropist. She is currently the executive vice chairman of Famfa Oil Limited and the group managing director of The Rose of Sharon Group. As of 2021, she was the wealthiest woman in Africa, and Forbes once named her one of the 100 most influential women in the world.
She completed her secretarial studies at London’s Pitman’s Central College and then came back to Nigeria to start her career. In 1974, Alakija began her 12-year banking career in Lagos, Nigeria, working as an executive assistant for Sijuade Enterprises where she achieved a lot of success.
Alakija went on to study fashion design at the Central School of Fashion and the American College in London. She founded a fashion brand called Supreme Stitches, which changed its name to The Rose of Sharon House of Fashion in 1996. She also served as the head of the Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria (FADAN) and was its lifelong trustee.
In addition to her fashion brand, she also founded Famfa Limited. She filed for an oil prospecting license (OPL) in May 1993. Alakija’s business, Famfa Limited, was awarded the right to search for oil on a 617,000-acre block in the Agbami Field, about 100 kilometers offshore of Nigeria.
In addition to her feats as an entrepreneur, she has also performed notably as a philanthropist. Alakija founded the Rose of Sharon Foundation to provide business grants and scholarships to widows and orphans. Alakija has also given a skills acquisition center to Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech).
Alakija has attained success in all areas of life, it seems, as she enjoys marital bliss with her husband Modupe Alakija, with whom she has 4 children.
2. Stella Chinyelu Okoli
Stella Chinyelu Okoli is a pharmacist, philanthropist, and businesswoman. She is the founder and current CEO of Emzor Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Company, which was established in 1977.
Stella Okoli studied pharmacy at the University of Bradford and received her degree in 1969. She obtained a master’s degree in biopharmaceuticals from the University of London, Chelsea College in 1971.
Before starting Emzor Pharmaceutical, Stella Okoli worked for several pharmaceutical companies, such as Pharma-Deko, Boots the Chemists Limited, and Middlesex Hospital in London.
Originally founded as Emzor Chemists Limited in January 1977 as a small pharmacy retail store in Somolu, Lagos State, Emzor Pharmaceutical has grown to become one of Nigeria’s top pharmaceutical companies, with more than 50 products since its incorporation in 1984.
Stella Okoli is the Vice President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture. She has also served as the Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. She is currently a member of the Economic Summit of Nigeria and the Health Matters Advisory Board of Nigeria.
Stella Okoli established the Chike Okoli Foundation in 2006 as a non-profit organization to battle poverty and illnesses by increasing public awareness of cardiovascular diseases after the loss of her son Chike Okoli in 2005. She is also the director of the Chike Okoli Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies.
In 1970, Dr Stella married Barr. Christopher Nnaemeka Okoli, with whom she has three children.
3. Uche Pedro
Uche Pedro is the creator and CEO of BellaNaija, a media technology company that specializes in lifestyle and entertainment content. With more than 200 million impressions each month, BellaNaija’s collective brands—BellaNaija.com, BellaNaija Weddings, and BellaNaija Style—have expanded their social impact under her direction to become one of the biggest on the African continent.
Uche graduated with honors in 2006 with a degree in business administration from the Ivey Business School. In 2020, she earned a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Uche was employed by Cadbury in Nigeria, Shell Canada, and Cadbury Middle East & Africa Unit in the United Kingdom. She established BellaNaija in July 2006.
Her success story was an interesting one. She said that when she was attending a Canadian institution, she had a two-week vacation and quickly became bored, which is when she got the idea to start BellaNaija. When she visited Nigeria and saw the increasing advancements in fashion, entertainment, and business, she was motivated to launch a venture that embodied the vibrant, youthful spirit of the nation.
She established BainStone Limited with the main goal of creating and overseeing creative and captivating internet media material for Africans. The business was selected as one of 50 high-potential SMEs and given a British Airways Opportunity Grant.
Uche has a strong desire to support her community and raise the next generation. She is the creator of #BNDoGood, an effect-driven program that regularly assists with a broad range of social impact and non-profit organizations, such as Junior Achievement Nigeria, Slum2School, Django Girls, LEAP Africa, and many more. To inspire millennials and Generation Z to register to vote and become engaged citizens, Uche co-founded PVCitizen in 2018.
Uche has received several awards and recognitions throughout her career, including Nigeria’s British Council International Young Media Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 and one of Africa’s 30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs in 2014 and 2015 by Forbes Magazine Online. In November 2018, Uche was given the ELOY Award for Innovation/Invention, which is given to a woman who has used her abilities to come up with novel solutions to issues and obstacles. Additionally, UNFPA/UNICEF presented her with a Frown Award in recognition of her work to end female genital mutilation (FGM) in Nigeria and to defend the rights of all girls.
Uche married Bode Pedro, the son of former Lagos State Deputy Governor Femi Pedro, on June 16, 2012. In 2015, she gave birth to twins.
4. Temie Giwa-Tubosun
Temie Giwa-Tubosun is a Nigerian-American health manager and is the creator of LifeBank (previously One Percent Project), a company in Nigeria that aims to increase the nation’s access to blood transfusions.
Together with a founding board of trustees, Temie founded an NGO, which was named the “One Percent Blood Donation Enlightenment Foundation” or One Percent Project on May 21, 2012. This organization aims to end the blood shortage, educate people about the importance of donating blood, dispel myths, and apathy, and increase the effectiveness of blood banks in Nigeria.
Temie established LifeBank, a business organization created in January 2016 to address Nigeria’s blood scarcity issue. LifeBank is a medical distribution firm that utilizes technology and data to find and supply necessary medical supplies to Nigerian hospitals. Her first child’s birth and the complications that followed served as the impetus for the company’s founding. As of January 2017, the company had assisted in the delivery of more than 2000 pints of blood to patients throughout the state.
Ms. Giwa-Tubosun’s initiative is today hailed both domestically and internationally as the pinnacle of social entrepreneurship—using business to address a significant social issue. Over the last four years, the firm has supplied around 26,000 goods to over 10,000 patients in almost 700 hospitals throughout Nigeria.
Temie married linguist and writer Kola Tubosun, with whom she has a son, Eniafe.
5. Yemi Keri
Yemi Keri is the CEO of Heckerbella Limited, a digital transformation company. She is also the CEO and co-founder of Rising Tide Africa, an angel investment platform run by women that helps African internet firms in their early stages.
She is an award-winning, business-minded technologist with expertise in the information technology and telecommunications sectors, working at the CEO and C-suite levels in both the public and private sectors. She has been in top leadership roles with First City Monument Bank Limited, the Edo State Directorate of Information Communications & Technology Agency, and SAP Africa. She is also the chair, non-executive director, and advisory board member of several organizations.
Known as one of the first Nigerian women in technology to establish a specialty in the field, she has over twenty years of experience in both the public and private sectors and is at the forefront of digital transformation to address commercial and societal issues. She is also a business development strategist who uses technology as a catalyst for strategic growth and is adept at developing creative business solutions to organizational problems.
She backs the iAspire Data Science Fellowship Program, a flagship initiative of iDAF.ng that trains and equips Nigeria’s creative minds to use deep learning, sophisticated machines, and artificial intelligence to address social and commercial issues.
6. Odunayo Eweniyi
An activist and businesswoman, Odunayo Eweniyi is the co-founder and chief operations officer of PiggyVest and a co-founder of the Feminist Coalition.
Eweniyi earned a first-class degree in computer engineering from Covenant University in 2013. After graduating in 2013, Eweniyi began by launching Push CV alongside Somto Ifezue and Joshua Chibueze. Two years later, in 2016, the three of them launched PiggyVest.
Eweniyi was named one of 30 Quartz Africa Innovators for 2019 and was on Forbes Africa’s 30 under 30 Technology list in 2019. She also received the Future Awards Africa Prize in Technology in 2018.
For her collaborative efforts during the October 2020 End SARS protests, Eweniyi was listed on Forbes Africa’s list of 20 New Wealth Creators in Africa 2019, nominated for the Future Awards Africa Prize for Young Person of the Year in 2020, and included on Time’s Next 100 list in 2021 and Bloomberg 50 in 2020. In March 2022, she was awarded the Forbes Woman Africa Technology and Innovation Award.
Eweniyi was chosen as a Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst in 2022. She participated in the Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst Retreat and the annual New Economy Forum in Singapore as part of the program.
7. Eloho Omame
Eloho, an early-stage investor and Nigerian entrepreneur, is a fervent supporter of women’s equality and inclusion in Africa’s venture capital industry.
She is a Partner at TLcom Capital LLP, a seed-to-growth stage venture capital company with an emphasis on Africa. Additionally, she is the General Partner and Co-Founder of First Check Africa, an early-stage venture capital business that makes investments in digital firms that were started by or co-founded by women.
Eloho formerly oversaw investments in the media, telecommunications, and technology industries while employed at Actis, a private equity company in Nigeria. She is a member of the boards of many Internet businesses and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
8. Bukky George
Bukky George is the CEO and creator of HealthPlus Limited a top drug-store chain in Nigeria. After being formed in 1996, the business started operating full-time in 1999. With perseverance, Bukky and her group transformed the business into the top drugstore chain in Nigeria.
HealthPlus sells high-quality goods, including nutritional supplements and medications. Along with selling natural treatment goods, HealthPlus also offers mobility assistance, additional pharmacy services, and home medical equipment including blood glucose test kits and Body Mass Index (BMI) assessment tools.
Following HealthPlus’s success, Bukky also started CasaBella International, which was subsequently incorporated in 2008. The business is a network of retail stores, although it specializes in grooming and cosmetics. The Casabella boutique opened its doors in Lagos in 2010. These days, it sells a variety of beauty items, including soaps, hair extensions, lotions, and scents.
Bukky George serves on the boards of many firms in addition to managing the day-to-day operations of her enterprises. She is a member of the Pharma Strategic Committee, which is in charge of managing the pharmaceutical sector in Nigeria. In addition, she is the current Chairman of the Sanofi Pharmacy Advisory Board and an associate member of Women in Management and Business (WIMBIZ).
Charles Babajide George and Bukky are married, and the couple has four kids together.
9. Mo Abudu
Mosunmola “Mo” Abudu is a Nigerian media tycoon, philanthropist, and former HRM consultant.
Her success began as early as age 19 when she was chosen to represent AVON Cosmetics in the African market. She worked for several companies in the UK where she was born and raised before relocating to Nigeria in 1993, when she was recruited to lead ExxonMobil’s training and human resources department.
She founded Vic Lawrence & Associates Limited and also came up with the idea for Oakwood Park’s Protea Hotel. She then went on to create, produce, and host Moments with Mo.
Her biggest achievement yet is Ebonylife TV (ELTV) which she founded in 2013, a network that broadcasts in the Caribbean, the UK, and other African nations. On July 1, 2013, Ebonylife TV made its debut on Multichoice’s DSTV Channel 165. Later on, Ebonylife TV introduced a multi-screen VOD platform. It had a carriage agreement with StarTimes, another pay-TV provider. Additionally, Abudu is in charge of EbonyLife Media, which consists of EbonyLife Studios and EbonyLife Films. She is also in charge of EbonyLife Place, a high-end entertainment resort in Nigeria, and the EbonyLife Creative Academy, a school that teaches filmmaking techniques.
EbonyLife Films, created by Abudu in 2014 is noteworthy for producing some of the best films in the country, including The Wedding Party, The Wedding Party 2, The Royal Hibiscus Hotel, Chief Daddy, Your Excellency, and Òlòtūré. She also produced Blood Sisters, which amassed over 11 million watching hours and reached the top 10 list worldwide on Netflix.
10. Maya Horgan Famodu
Nigerian-American businesswoman Maya Horgan Famodu has made big achievements in the business world.
She founded Ingressive Capital because her friends were having trouble obtaining funding for their businesses. Another initiative of Ingressive is the Ingressive Campus Ambassador (ICA) program, which offers funding, resources, and mentorship to computer science students in tertiary institutions in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Rwanda, and Congo.
She co-founded the High Growth Africa Summit, a conference on starting a successful business in Africa, in 2016. The program was launched in Ghana in 2018 and has hubs at the University of Port Harcourt, University of Uyo, Kwara State Polytechnic, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Babcock University, Rivers State University, Cross River University of Technology, Federal University of Petroleum Resources Effurun, and University of Benin.
Conclusion
Several Nigerian female entrepreneurs have attained success beyond measure. If you are a woman who wants to venture into business, then this list should serve as a reminder that you can achieve much more than you can imagine once you set your mind to it.
