These Nigerian women made it to the Forbes Africa 50 Most Powerful Women’s List and we are super proud.
This is a first-of-its-kind Pan-African compilation of the continent’s leading women, drawn from business, politics, media, science, sports and public life, these women are challenging the status quo and creating a trail on the terrain where there was none.
They are reshaping history, closing inequalities and pioneering new avenues of wealth creation and in turn, lifting others with them.
Each of these women is a representation of how far Nigerian women have come and how much we have achieved in Nigeria.
Amina J Mohammed
Amina Jane Mohammed is a Nigerian-British diplomat and politician who is serving as the fifth Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. she was formerly the Nigerian Minister of Environment, she was also a key player in the Post-2015 Development Agenda process.
Aruma Oteh
Arunma Oteh, OON (Officer of the Order of the Niger), is the Treasurer and Vice President of the World Bank.
She became the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Nigeria in January 2010. In this position, she was responsible for the regulation of Nigeria’s capital markets, including the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer whose works range from novels to short stories to nonfiction. She was described in The Times Literary Supplement as “the most prominent” of a “procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors [who] is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature”.
Adichie has written the novels Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah (2013), the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), and the book-length essay We Should All Be Feminists (2014).
Folorunsho Alakija
Folorunso Alakija is a Nigerian billionaire businesswoman. She is involved in the fashion, oil, real estate, and printing industries.
Folorunsho is the group managing director of The Rose of Sharon Group which consists of The Rose of Sharon Prints & Promotions Limited, Digital Reality Prints Limited and the executive vice-chairman of Famfa Oil Limited.
She also has a majority stake in DaySpring Property Development company. Folorunsho is ranked by Forbes as the richest woman in Nigeria with an estimated net worth of $1 billion and also one of the Forbes Africa 50 Most Powerful Women.
Also Read, Nigeria is Africa’s Largest Economy
Ibukun Awosika
Ibukunoluwa Abiodun Awosika is a Nigerian businesswoman, author, and motivational speaker. She currently serves as Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria.
Ibukun co-founded the Afterschool Graduate Development Centre, a career center established in order to curb the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria.
Ibukun Awosika is member of IESE’s International Advisory Board (IAB), She also sits on the board of Digital Jewel Limited and Cadbury Nig Plc.
Ngozi Okonjo Iweala
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian-born economist and International development, expert. She sits on the Boards of Standard Chartered Bank, Twitter, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), and the African Risk Capacity (ARC).
Okonjo-Iweala had spent a 25-year career at the World Bank as a development economist, scaling the ranks to the Number 2 position of Managing Director, Operations (2007-2011).
She also served two terms as Finance Minister of Nigeria (2003-2006, 2011-2015) under the leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan respectively.
She was recently appointed as a member of South Africa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council.
Obiageli Oby Ezekwesui
Obiageli Ezekwesili popularly known as Oby Ezekwesili is a Nigerian chartered accountant from Anambra state.
She was a co-founder of Transparency International, serving as one of the pioneer directors of the global anti-corruption body based in Berlin, Germany.
Oby served as Federal Minister of Solid Minerals and then as Federal Minister of Education during the second-term presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo. Since then, she served as the Vice-President of the World Bank’s Africa division from May 2007 to May 2012, Oby was a 2018 nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in transparency in the extractive sector.
Olajumoke Adenowo
Olajumoke Olufunmilola Adenowo is an architect by profession. She is also an entrepreneur and philanthropist, a public speaker, radio host, and author. CNN described her as “Africa’s Starchitect” and The Guardian (Nigeria) has described her as “the face of Architecture in Nigeria”. In 2018 she was recognized by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) as one of the inspirational women in architecture today.
As an architect, Adenowo’s portfolio includes a host of multi-national and Nigerian clients including Coca-Cola, L’Oreal, The Nigerian Stock Exchange, Access Bank Plc and GT Bank.
She started her own architecture and interior design firm AD Consulting in 1994. The firm is based in Lagos, Nigeria.
Tara Fela Durotoye
Tara Fela-Durotoye is a Nigerian beauty entrepreneur and lawyer. A pioneer in the bridal makeup profession in Nigeria, she launched the first bridal directory in 1999, set up international standard makeup studios and established the first makeup school in Nigeria.
She is the founder and CEO of House of Tara International and creator of the Tara Orekelewa Beauty range, Inspired Perfume and the H.I.P Beauty range. She is considered a major force in the Nigerian female entrepreneurship community having created an impact business that has empowered tens of thousands of beauty entrepreneurs through the “Tara Beauty Entrepreneur” initiative.
Uchenna Uche Pedro
Uche Pedro is an award-winning Nigerian entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of BellaNaija, a media-tech brand known for entertainment and lifestyle content.
Under her leadership, BellaNaija’s social footprint has grown through its collective brands – BellaNaija.com, BellaNaija Weddings, and BellaNaija Style to be the largest on the African continent with more than 200 million impressions each month.
Uche is a Fellow of TEDGlobal and a Nigeria Leadership Initiative associate. In 2013, Uche was honored as the British Council International Young Media Entrepreneur of the Year for Nigeria. In 2014 and 2015, Forbes Magazine Online listed Uche among the 30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs in Africa.
These 10 women have made history by being part of the Forbes Africa 50 Most powerful women of 2020.
We are proud of their achievements in various fields.
As women, we can blaze our trails with their lights upon us.