Black Women Entrepreneurs: Top 6 Black Women in Business
“If you want a certain future, go out and create it. Conquer your fears as that is what enslaves most women. Opportunities are now galore. We just need to roll up our sleeves, lift our feet, and walk through the door as no one will carry us.”
-Divine Ndhlukula
In spite of considerable hurdles, women have proven to be able to succeed in any sphere they decide to be involved in. As a result of this, the past few years have seen a significant rise in the number of African businesses owned by women. Not only do these businesses manage to survive the harsh economic climes, they even go on to thrive!
Although this is something to be proud of, it is still important to note that not enough women, black women, are in business. Especially in places like America.
As seen on blackenterprise.com;
According to Catalyst, a research and advisory firm, women of color represent about 1.6% of corporate officers and top earners at the nation’s 500 leading industrial companies. When we published our list of “21 Women of Power and Influence in Corporate America” in 1991, black women constituted 3% of corporate management and 0.9% of corporate officers. According to Catalyst, women of color currently hold 3% of the board seats at 415 of the nation’s 500 largest industrial corporations. Of all 655 seats held by women, 104 are held by African Americans. Says Katherine Giscombe, Catalyst’s senior director of research, many women of color continue to get “discouraged by looking up the corporate ladder and seeing relatively few people who look like them.”
That’s not very encouraging but still, in the midst of this obvious inequality, some women have managed to defeat the status quo and go-ahead to be the best in their fields, deciding world economies and shaping the future of continents.
Here on Afrolady, we bring you just six of such women, profiled in no particular order and we do hope they inspire you!
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Folorunsho Alakija (Nigerian)
Image Source: Instagram
The 68-year-old billionaire was born in Ikorodu, a town in Lagos State, Nigeria. She was born into a middle class family. Growing up, she trained as a secretary at Pitman’s Central College, London. Little did she know that she would one day become the second richest and most powerful woman in Africa.
Folorunsho’s ascension into mind-blowing wealth was as a result of impeccable timing and profitable investment. All of which are necessary ingredients in making the most out of your business. She trained as a seamstress and even established a fashion house, which she called Supreme Stitches.
Her clientele was so elite that she even had the wife of former Nigerian president Ibrahim Babangida patronize her. Before deciding to venture into her own line of business, Folorunsho was so many things. In 1974, she worked as an executive secretary at Sijuade Enterprises, Lagos, Nigeria before going to work at Merchant Bank.
She struck gold when she applied for the allocation of an Oil Prospecting License (OPL). This is a license that confers exclusive rights of surface and subsurface exploration for the production of petroleum in an area not more than 2590 km2. (1000 m2) in size. The license was granted to her company- Famfa Limited by the Nigerian government in 1993.
The gold started rolling in when they finally struck oil. In a dispute with the Nigerian government over stakes, it was revealed that if the government did not take a whopping 50% stake, Alakija would be making a little over $10 million every day.
Recently, her net worth is said to have arrived at $1 billion. She is currently 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. Currently, she holds the office of the Chancellor of Osun State University in Nigeria.
With a firm stake in the industries of fashion, oil, real estate and printing, Alakija has become the richest woman in Nigeria, the second richest woman in Africa and was even once the richest black woman in the world.
Goals!
2. Isabel Dos Santos (Angola)
Currently, Africa’s richest woman at a net worth of $2.1 billion, Isabel dos Santos is the oldest daughter of Angola’s former president, José Eduardo dos Santos and his first wife, the Russian-born Tatiana Kukanova.
Image Source: Instagram
Although many might claim that Isabel’s wealth comes entirely from her family’s status, connections and financial power, it is also pertinent to acknowledge her intentional strive for success and growth in her field. Not many children of Presidents can boast of such influence even with the same connections and financial power.
Isabel studied Electrical Engineering at King’s College, London, but all through the course of her career, she always managed to hold top management positions in most companies listed in the European Stock Exchange.
She set up a trucking business, went into the telecommunication business, opened the Miami Beach Club (one of the first nightclubs and beach restaurants in Luanda Island), created several holdings, made investments in high profile enterprises, and many more. At a point, she was even sworn in as the chairwoman of Angolan State Oil, Sonangol. An office that she only lasted two months.
Isabel’s niche is mainly in the finance, media, retail, telecommunications, and energy industry. She also invested in oil and diamonds, along with cement industries in her home country. Apart from that, she’s the chairwoman of Unitel SA, Angola’s private mobile phone company, valued at more than $5 billion and she’s just 42!
3. Ngina Kenyatta (Kenyan)
The 86-year-old is the wife of Kenya’s founding father, Jomo Kenyatta and the mother of the current President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta. She currently has a net worth of $1 billion. This is a fortune that has amassed over the years from her investments in real estate, banking, and hospitality sectors.
Image Source: Instagram
As the matriarch of the Kenyatta family, Mama Ngina as she is fondly called has managed to hold the fortune of the family in one piece and also be instrumental to its growth. The vast business empire of the Kenyatta family ranges from stocks in the Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) to owning Brookside Dairy (the family’s signature milk processor) and controlling a chain of luxury 5-star hotels called Heritage Hotels East Africa.
Apart from these sources, Mama Ngina also oversees and manages thousands of acres of land across Kenya that were acquired by her husband during a time when the British allowed government officials to buy land at very cheap prices.
With top-notch services and an impressive drive to expand, this empire is gradually spreading its tentacles to go above and beyond the borders of Kenya and East Africa as a whole. Many business analysts hold this rise and rise of the Kenyatta empire to the strong steering hand of the matriarch herself, Mama Ngina Kenyatta.
4. Njeri Rionge (Kenyan)
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This is a woman the Kenyan business and entrepreneurship world calls ‘Serial Entrepreneur’. Njeri started her business ventures as early as when she was just 19. At the age of 20, she sold yoghurt to her fellow high schoolers during school break times. In an interview with Forbes, she gave a detailed account of her early start in business.
My first business involved selling yogurt to the International School Of Kenya and Loretto Convent Musongari High School over their 10am and 4pm school breaks. I sold the yogurt from the car trunk which belonged to a friend of mine with whom I had partnered. We picked up the yogurt from a farm in Limuru (a town in Kenya) at 6 am and returned back every second day for more stock. Throughout this period I was employed as a hairdresser with a clientele consisting largely of high net worth individuals. Recognizing yet another opportunity, I traveled to London on a regular basis using discounted courier tickets to purchase resale luxury merchandise which were not available in Kenya at the time. I sold this merchandise to my clients.
Njeri’s specialty has always been seeing an opportunity and milking it for all it’s worth. The nineties saw the advent of the internet. At this point, the internet was reserved for the wealthy and elite in the community. Njeri found this to be an anomaly and sought a solution to the common man who would also have access to the internet. Hence, she started Wananchi Online in the year 2000.
This venture went on to become East Africa’s first mass-market internet service provider. She made it so affordable and accessible that it became a country favorite. Now, Wananchi Online has gone beyond being one of the largest and most relevant internet service providers in the country. It has now morphed into something bigger; The Wananchi Group. This group has now become the leading provider of broadband internet, cable television and internet-based mobile services in East Africa.
She didn’t stop there. She went on to create a chain of businesses under the name. They are, Ignite Consulting (a business consultancy), Ignite Lifestyle (a health consultancy), Insite (a digital marketing company), Business Lounge (a startup incubator) and many others.
At a net worth of over $100 million, the most beautiful thing about Njeri is that she not only wishes for her economic advancement, but also that of Africa as a whole. As she says, she wishes Africa to become the “next big economic miracle”. In achieving that, she shares her knowledge, skills, and strategy with young entrepreneurs and startups in her country.
This is her word of advice for young female entrepreneurs;
Ladies, it’s like learning to ride a bike or driving a car. You need only to believe in yourself, trust your gut feeling and develop a clear plan or strategy, keep it simple and implement that plan step by step with courage, conviction, and love above all. Ultimately, be open-minded and flexible to change course when needed and listen to your customers.
In 2011, Njeri was titled ‘Africa’s Most Successful Woman’ by Forbes. Outstanding!
5. Hajia Bola Shagaya (Nigerian)
Image Source: Tybello
Hajia Bola Shagaya is a 60-year-old Nigerian businesswoman and Fashion Enthusiast born in Ilorin, Kwara State. She launched her career as a banker in the audit department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). This she did for a while before leaving the corporate world and going into business.
Her first business move was to go into the importation and exportation of photographic materials such as films, cameras, roll papers and the likes. At that point, she created her brand Bolmus International Limited. The height of her new business venture came when she partnered with Konica, a Japanese multinational technology company that specializes in the production of business and industrial imaging products. She then became the major distributor of the brand in the Nigerian and West African market. Now, she has expanded to photo laboratories – FotoFair.
FotoFair is now one of the leading photo laboratories in Nigeria with over thirty laboratories across the country.
Hajia, as she is fondly called, also founded a couple of oil companies. Practoil Limited, one of the largest importers and distributors of base oil in Nigeria is one of them, along with Voyage Oil and Gas Limited which is an oil exploration company. Real estate is another sector which Hajia dominates in Nigeria. She owns several luxurious residential properties cut across major cities in Nigeria. She is also on the board of Unity Bank PLC.
As at 2019, she is said to have an estimated net worth of $1 billion. Fantastic.
6. Divine Ndhlukula (Zimbabwean)
Dr Divine Ndhlukula is a Zimbabwean businesswoman and farmer. Before venturing into the Security industry, Divine started her career in Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. She moved on to become an Accounting Officer in Old Mutual (a pan-African investment, savings, insurance and banking group) for six whole years. After that, she went on to work for another 16 years as a Marketing Executive in Intermarket Life Assurance.
Image Source: Instagram
The career move that turned her into a force to be reckoned with was inspired by her need to change the status quo in the male dominated security industry. In her own words;
I thought there was a gap in the industry. Companies that were there were not living up to the needs of the clients. The industry was renowned for wild cat strikes and guards generally were perceived as the lowly-paid in any sector. I wanted to change the perceptions and create a niche in which people could carve out a career, and I knew I needed to go in with a different approach and that approach was going to make the difference, the people had to be key or central feature of the vision.
This birthed SECURICO, a security company which is one of the largest security firms in Zimbabwe. Divine also owns a farm called Zvikomborero Farms. At the age of 59, Divine is worth over $809 million, making her one of the richest women in Africa.
Black Women Entrepreneurs: The Awe
While the profile of these women are nothing short of amazing, we must also consider the extra sacrifices they had to make to attain their current position. As Divine Ndhlukula rightly said; “The biggest lesson I have learnt so far is that nothing comes easy. While I always knew I was going to make it in business, I had not really anticipated the amount of hard work, discipline, commitment and determination I needed to get here.”
It’s never a bed of roses. Be prepared to confront the world, come rain come shine.
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