Sophia Ojikutu

Nigerian entrepreneur who created West Africa's first female-owned textile empire in the 1950s

Sophia Ojikutu (1928-2007) defied colonial-era gender norms to build Ojikutu Textiles, a pioneering enterprise that revolutionized Nigeria's textile industry. Starting with a single loom in her Lagos home in 1952, she grew the business into a multinational corporation employing over 3,000 workers by the 1970s. Her innovations included adapting traditional Yoruba weaving techniques with modern machinery to produce high-quality Ankara fabrics.

Ojikutu's company became the first African textile firm to export to Europe through her 1960s partnership with Parisian fashion houses. She pioneered fair trade practices decades before the term existed, establishing profit-sharing agreements with artisans and funding vocational schools for women. Her 1965 book Weaving Freedom (now a UNESCO heritage document) details her business philosophy.

During Nigeria's civil war, she covertly supplied uniforms to the military while maintaining production of civilian fabrics. Her post-war initiative to train 10,000 women in textile skills helped rebuild the economy. Ojikutu's legacy includes the Sophia Foundation, which still operates Nigeria's largest textile training center.

Explore her story at Nigerian Business Museum and view her 1963 interview at Internet Archive.