Hajia Bola Shagaya (MON)is a Nigerian businesswoman and fashion enthusiast. She is one of the richest women in Africa. She was born on the 10th of October, 1959. She is married to Alhaji Shagaya, a Kwara State-based transport mogul, and has four children. She had her secondary school education at Queens School, Ilorin, and her tertiary education at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Armstrong College in California, where she studied economics and accountancy.
She started her career with the audit department of the Central Bank of Nigeria before venturing into commercial activities in 1983. Her business experience started with the importation and distribution of photographic materials and she introduced the Konica brand of photographic materials into the Nigerian market and West Africa and that was the birth of another of her companies – Fotofair (Nigeria) Limited. Today, Fotofair is a leading photo laboratory company in Nigeria with over thirty laboratories spread across the nation.
Hajia Bola Shagaya is also the managing director of Practoil Limited, one of the largest importers and distributors of base oil in Nigeria, serving local lubricant blending plants.
Over the years, her oil and gas companies have operated as dealers and independent marketers of oil, petroleum products and gas, engaged in petroleum product sales, marketing, storage, haulage and transported oil, petroleum, kerosene and cooking gas. They have also acquired licence and engaged in oil and gas prospecting and exploration, acquiring or owning oil fields and also lifting crude oil and associated products.
Around 2005, she became the managing director of Practoil Limited and in 2011 she founded another exploration company, Voyage Oil and Gas Limited.
Her businesses also includes huge investment in real estate, spanning across major cities in the country with over three hundred employees.
She is currently on the board of Unity Bank plc (formerly Intercity Bank) and has been for over eight years. She is also a member of the recently inaugurated Nepad Business Group – Nigeria. Hajia Bola Shagaya is a patron of the Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria (FADAN), and a fashion and art enthusiast who supports and encourages the fashion and art industry. She also loves sports, especially polo.
On 22 July 2010, she was awarded by the then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GCFR), the title of Member of the Order of the Niger (MON).
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