Agbani Darego Recently Opened Up About Her Side Gig Which
Became Her Main Source Of Income.
HOW AGBANI DAREGO BECAME SO RICH
AND THE FIRST BLACK AFRICAN TO WIN MISS WORLD
Spotlight On Agbani Darego: How She Became So Rich?
Long before the present crop of African models began to gain
prominence and recognition in the global stage, Agbani Darego had
walked the walk. The highly decorated model and beauty queen gained
global acclaim after winning the Miss World in 2001. She was the
first indigenous African to wear the crown.
Born in Lagos on December 22, 1982, her full name is
Ibiagbanidokibubo Asenite Darego. She hails from Abonnema in Rivers
State where she is the sixth of eight children. Her father, Asenite
Sikibo Darego was a customs officer while her mother, Inaewo Darego
owned a rice trading business that saw her travelling often. At the
age of two, the family relocated to Portharcourt where Agbani grew
up in the D-line area. Inaewo eventually opened a clothing boutique
where she sold clothes she bought on her trips. And it was by
flipping through the pages of foreign magazines in the boutique
that Agbani was introduced to a semblance of what will later become
her passion.
At ten, she was sent off to a boarding school at the Federal
Government Girls’ Secondary School, Abuloma, to shield her from her
mother who was becoming very sick with breast cancer. Her mother
died two years later while she was away. She was hurt when she
realized she had been sent away because of her mother’s health
condition. “I wasn’t too happy at first, but it prepared me for my
life now,” she told Julia Llewellyn Smith in an interview. “I
learned to be on my own. It makes you independent.”
She began nursing a dream of becoming a model in her teens, but
her conservative father dismissed the career plan. Being ‘too’ tall
and lanky at six feet, he believed she didn’t have a chance.
Despite her father’s disapproval, she started out by auditioning
for the M-Net Face of Africa modelling contest. She was rejected in
her first attempt.
“I went for the casting for the Mnet Face of Africa, I did not
make it to the competition, I got cut off before the competition
but that was where I actually ran into the pageant manager for MBGN
and she convinced me to go for the pageant,” she said during her
17th Miss World anniversary in 2018.
Due to the setback, she chose to study Computer Science and
Mathematics at the University of Portharcourt as a backup plan. By
then, her father was already in full support of her passion for
modelling. She entered “The Face of Africa” modelling contest in
1998 and finished as the runner-up.
She deferred her admission and began pursuing modeling agencies
in Lagos, and also entering pageants. Her big break came in January
2001 when she entered the “Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria” contest.
She won and was automatically eligible to represent Nigeria in the
Miss World pageant later that year. She was also a contestant at
Miss Universe where she became the first Nigerian to place among
the top 10 semi-finalists, coming in at seventh overall.
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By November 2001 she beat 90 other contestants to become Miss
World. Her victory was monumental as she was the first Nigerian to
win the Miss World crown. But more importantly, she was the first
black woman from Africa to win it as well. Three other African
winners such as Penelope Coelen (1958) and Anneline Kriel (1974)
from South Africa, are of European descent, while Antigone
Costanda, who represented Egypt in 1954 is of Greek heritage.
Agbani was elated with her triumph as she was granted a national
honour — Member of the Federal Republic, MFR and celebrated for
days. Reminiscing about the honour, she told Mail Online,
“There were receptions in every city. I met presidents, royalty and
film stars and received standing ovations from people I’d never
even dreamed of meeting.”
She dedicated her crown to her mother and chose to become a
patron of a breast-cancer awareness program. She also invested some
of her cash prize in buying a parcel of land back home.
Following her victory as Miss World, she was signed by the
London and Paris branches of Next Model Management. She was also
offered a three-year contract with L’Oréal, making her
the second Black model to accomplish such feat after Vanessa
Williams.
Due to growing demands on her schedule, she dropped out of the
University of Portharcourt and moved to New York to take up a
contract with Next Model Management and Ford Models. She later
enrolled at New York University where she studied Psychology. She
graduated in 2012, the same year that her father died.
Over the span of her career, she has featured in both local and
international magazines like Elle, Marie Claire, Essence,
Allure, Cosmopolitan, Complete Fashion, TW Magazine among others.
She has also modelled for many international brands, including
Avon, Christian Dior, Sephora, Target, and Macy’s. While working
with designers like Oscar de la Renta, Marc Bouwer, Tommy
Hillfiger, Ralph Lauren, and Gianfranco Ferre.
She has been a judge on numerous pageant and modelling
competitions including Miss World 2014, Elite Model Look Nigeria
2012 and 2014, Miss England 2002 and Mr. Scotland 2002.
In 2013, she launched her own fashion label AD by Agbani
Darego, which includes jeans, dresses, sunglasses and bags.
She got married to her longtime boyfriend, Ishaya Danjuma, the
son of Retired General Theophilus Danjuma in a ceremony held in
Marrakesh in April 2017. They both have a son born in September
2018 .
Sunday Dare
NYIF: Ministry Sets Up Focal Group on Inputs Processes,
Entrepreneurship, Others
The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has set up a Focal
Group on the newly approved Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF).
The Focal Group is an assemblage of youth leaders and groups from
diverse fields, entrepreneurial experts and individuals with youth
development and finance experience.
The NYIF Focal Group is entrusted with processing stakeholders’
views and inputs about the Fund and making same available to the
NYIF’s Technical Committee. The group will also provide valuable
feedbacks on expectations of the youth generally and deliberate on
wide ranging issues around youth entrepreneurship and credit
access.
Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Sunday Dare had
tasked the Focal Group to “provide useful insights around the
challenges faced by youth entrepreneurs and youth with burning
ideas and how best they think the fund can assist them. The Nigeria
Youth Investment Fund is not just another programme of government.
You have the responsibility of coming up with suggestions on how to
make NYIF serve the needs of the youth and facilitate turning their
ideas into viable businesses, helping them to expand existing
businesses.”
The twenty-three-member Focal Group is led by, Oladipo Adebiyi
with Mr. Samson Itodo, Executive Director of Youth Initiative for
Advocacy Growth & Advancement (YIAGA) as Deputy Team Lead.
The membership of the group includes Thomas Enitan Eleoramo,
Funds Manager/Investment Banker; Ife Adebayo, SA Innovation &
Entrepreneurship Office of the Vice President; Mrs. Fayo Williams,
CEO, Simply Exponential Consult; Mr Abubakar Badre; Mr Olisameka
Onyeka; Mrs Yetunde Adeniji and Barrister Usman Bappa.
Others are Mr Gbenga Adeyemo, Youth Development
Coach/Journalist; Ubale Nalado, Development Expert, Zainab Haruna,
CEO Decipher Solutions; Lukman Edu, Youth Entrepreneur/Lawyer;
Bella Amadi, Founder, Girls Lead Hub; Oguamanam Jacqueline; Amina
Abdulsalam; Tayo Olusunde, Executive Director, Mind the Gap;
Mubarak Mijinyawa, Speaker, Nigerian Youth Parliament; Morakinyo
Oladotun Ebenezer; Sokubo Sara-Igbe Sokubo, President, National
Youth Council of Nigeria; Aisha Usman; Joel Ogunsola; Obi Ozor, CEO
Truck 360; and Idris Olorunnimbe, Member- Lagos State Employment
Trust Fund.
_Media Office of the Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports
Development_
Monday August 10, 2020