Alakija reflects on early years with throwback photos

Folorunsho Alakija, the Nigerian billionaire businesswoman, has taken to social media to reflect on her early days with throwback photos.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, the entrepreneur and philanthropist shared a photo of herself as a child and that of when she was a young adult.

She also accompanied the photos with a terse note which read: “A quick throwback for thursday won’t hurt, yes?”

Alakija has established herself as a popular figure in the global business landscape and has snagged several recognitions for her heroics.

In 2016, the vice-chairman of Famfa Oil had recounted how she was able to attain greatness without having a university education.

“If I had the opportunity of going to the university, maybe I would have come out with a second class upper or lower but that didn’t happen; that wasn’t to be my destiny,” she had said.

“I would have loved to go to the university as we all know that university education is good but some of us who have not gone, it is not the end of the world.

“A lot of things have been said about me, some say I sold my way to the top; I remember that the headline of one of the national dailies in the country once said ‘Hairdresser given an oil block’. So I even became a hairdresser, one of the many names I was given.”