Folorunsho Alakija should ignore all her suitors and focus on building a manufacturing conglomerate with the following subsidiaries that will serve as the bellwether of Nigeria’s economy

Ayo Akinfe

[1] The Alakija Cattle Company

This company will operate ranches, dairy companies, leather tanneries, abattoirs and animal feed compounders. It will turn Nigeria into a major exporter of milk, beef, animal feed compounds and leather goods like bags, shoes, belts, wallets, etc

[2] Alakija Engineering

This company will be an engineering giant operating steel mills, power plants, equipment manufacturing factories, shipyards, machine tool plants, etc across Nigeria. It should also produce goods like aviation parts, railway carriages, machine tools, locomotive engines, etc

[3] Alakija Textile and Clothing Company

We have cotton to produce clothes, yet we do not have one Nigerian brand that manufactures our wide array of African clothing like the agbada, isi agwu, danshiki, kaftan, fancy shoes, etc. This company should be floated on at least three global stock exchanges and should be competing with the likes of Gucci, Luis Vuitton, Georgio Armani, Balenciaga, Dior Homme, Givenchi, etc

[4] Alakija Airlines

This will start off as a domestic airline but over time the company merge with one international player like maybe Ethiopian Airlines and them attract say a 20% holding from an international operator like KLM, Virgin or BA. Turn it into a genuine global airline that can compete with the likes of Air France, Lufthansa, Emirates, etc

[5] Alakija Industries

In Nigeria, our so-called industrialists are shamelessly content with importing goods and distributing them. I would like to see Mrs Alakija step up her presence in the global cement and sugar markets but also branch out into other areas like timber and furniture, food processing, property development, etc

[6] Alakija Motors

Any year one economics student will tell you that it is impossible to provide enough cars for 200m people relying on imports. Never has happened and never will happen. Nigeria needs an indigenous car manufacturing capacity. We have to buildlocal capacity up to at least the level of say Fiat, Lada, Citroen, Mazda, Peugeot, etc. There are currently 12m cars in Nigeria. If demand doubles over the next five tears, where do we expect to get the automobiles from?

[7] Alakija Oil

None of the refineries the NNPC is responsible for are operational and it is costing Nigerian money by the day. Mrs Alakija should start off by buying one and building a subsidiary around it. This company needs to delve into high end manufacturing, producing oil rigs, oil wells, etc

[8] Alakija Confectionery Company

Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Cameroon account for about 80% of global cocoa production but less than 10% of the global $140bn chocolate industry. It is time to have our own Mars, Nestle, Cadbury, etc that will serve as a vertically integrated company, liaising with producers of cocoa, milk, sugar, coconuts, groundnuts, cashews, coconuts, etc and midwifing the process from farm to shop floor. We produce everything that goes into chocolate products but yet have no chocolate brand

[9] Alakija Fruit Company

Nigeria can easily step up her production of fruit like pineapples, papaya, bananas, oranges, mangoes, guava, etc and become the world's largest producer. However, to realise maximum gains from this, we need to start processing and canning our produce locally and exporting finished products. Nothing stops this company branching out into other areas of food processing like say manufacturing plantain chips, processing yam and cassava and moving into edible oil production, etc

[10] Alakija Retail Company

Nigerians have retail outlets in every nook and cranny of the world but alas, we do not have one retail brand. Shame on us for not having a retail giant that can compete with the likes of Sainsburys, Tesco, Asda, Walmart, Cosco, Ikea, etc.

Let Mrs Alakija set herself a target of creating these 10 companies, each with a market capitalisation of at least $10bn by say 2030. I want to see her holding company Alakija Enterprises floated on the Lagos, London, Tokyo, Frankfurt and New York stock exchanges and run like genuine multinational.