A Nigerian woman has surpassed Oprah Winfery on the rich list making her the richest black woman.
Folorunsho Alakija, a business tycoon has edged past Oprah Winfrey with a fortune of $7.3bn to Oprah’s $2.9bn.

According to Ventures Africa magazine’s Rich List, Alakija generated her wealth from oil and gas.
The magazine noted that it was widely believed  that Alakija’s friendship with Maryam Babangida, the late wife of former head of state, Ibrahim Babangida, played a huge role in her  acquisition of an oil block she bought way back in 1993.
National President of Independent Shareholders Association (ISAN), Sunny Nwosu said that her ranking as world’s richest black woman is understandable because she has one of the biggest oil wells in the country that is managed on her behalf by a leading multinational oil corporation.
“Her oil well is one of the investments the military government bequeathed to people like her,” Nwosu said.
However, a UK based Business Consultant, Philip Obi cautions that Alakija’s stand is shaky because oil is fast losing value in the face of falling oil prices.
Obi added that unless she decides to diversify, her 90% wealth in oil, her standing looks unsteady considering the alternative energy potential.
“The world is going digital,” Obi said.
Very soon, wealth will no longer be what we use to know; look at Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
“That is where the world is going- it is going digital,”he added.
According to Ventures Africa, Africa boasts 55 billionaires and they’re worth approximately $143.88 billion in total.
Alakija’s Background
At age seven, Folorunsho travelled to the United Kingdom to begin a four-year primary education at Dinorben School for Girls in Wales. She returned to the UK in her later years for her secretarial studies at Pitman’s Central College, London. She also studied fashion design at the American College, London and the Central School of Fashion.
Alakija started her career as a secretary in a bank in 1974.
She started a fashion label called Supreme  Stitches but her biggest break came in oil.
In 1993, her company, Famfa Oil, was awarded an oil prospecting license, which later became OML 127, one of Nigeria’s most prolific oil blocks.
The company owns a 60 per cent stake in the block, valued at around $7.3 billion.
As of 2014, she was listed as the 96th most powerful woman in the world.