Hajia Bola Shagaya is one of the richest women in Nigeria and Africa. With a fortune estimated at about 1.9 billion dollars, she is among the richest women in Africa. 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.

Around 2005, she became the managing director of Practoil Limited and in 2011 she founded Voyage Oil and Gas Limited - exploration company. Practoil Limited is one of the largest importers and distributors of base oil in Nigeria, meeting the needs of the local lubricant blending plants. Currently, Practoil is building its own state of the art lubricating plant at Kirikiri, Lagos state. Her businesses also include huge investment in real estate, spanning across major cities in the country with over three hundred employees.

She was on the board of Intercity bank for over eight years. While on the board of the then intercity bank (now Unity Bank Plc), she served in different capacities on various board committees including the position of Chairman of the bank’s establishment committee and Chairman, Audit committee just to mention a few. In addition, Hajiya Bola Shagaya was a member of the audit and credit committees of the board of Unity Bank plc.