Africa’s richest woman, Folorunsho Alakija, owns N18b UK property

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According to a report released last weekend by American lifestyle magazine, Vanity Fair, Nigerian oil Tycoon, Mrs Folorunsho Alakija owns five apartments in London’s One Hyde Park, the world’s most expensive apartment block.

Vanity Fair in their report wrote that Mrs Alakija owns five apartments in the 6,000 pounds-per-square-feet apartment block which she bought at a combined fee of $123 million (N18.4billion), making her the second highest property owner in the upmarket area after Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man and owner of Ukranian football club, Shaktar Donesk, whose property is valued at $215.9 million.

Others who own property at One Hyde Park include some of the richest men in Britain, Russia, Taiwan, sheiks from UAE, Naomi Campbell’s boyfriend Vladislav Doronin also owns an apartment there.

According to the investigation by tax haven expert, Nicholas Shaxton, who wrote the report for Vanity Fair, just 17 of the 76 sold apartments are primary residences. Because the property owners are so wealthy, many of them have other homes and do not use their exclusive Hyde Park address as their permanent home. Shaxton also revealed that many of the owners use offshore companies to buy the homes to enable them hide their identity.