Meet Princess Fifi Ejindu, CEO Building Support Systems

Offiong Ekanem Ejindu aka Princess Fifi Ejindu is the CEO of Building Support Systems and the Principal Partner of Starcrest Group of Companies. She is a Nigerian Neo-traditional Architect, a fashionista, an entrepreneur and a philanthropist.

Fifi is the founder of The African Arts and Fashion initiative and has been identified as one of the leading female architects in Nigeria.

Fifi was born in 1962 in Ibadan, Nigeria. She is royalty; her maternal great grandfather, King James Ekpo Bassey of Cobham Town in Calabar, Nigeria was crowned King of Cobham Town by Queen Victoria in 1893.

Her father, Sylvester Joseph Una is a professor at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State. He was the first Minister of Health in the former eastern region of Nigeria and also a member of the House of Parliament before Nigeria gained its independence.

Princess Fifi Ejindu was born and brought up in Ibadan, but she is originally from Uyo in Akwa Ibom State.

Fifi Ejindu had her primary education at the Senior Staff Primary School of the University of Ibadan and her secondary education at Queens College, Yaba, Lagos. 

She graduated with a B.Arch degree in 1983 from Pratt Institute, a private design college in Brooklyn, New York. Fifi was one of the first African woman to be awarded a Bachelor in Architecture from the Institution. After graduating from Pratt Institute, Fifi enrolled at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she took some courses before taking a job at Grant Associates in New York City. She then went back to Pratt Institute for her Masters in Urban Planning before relocating to Nigeria.

Starcrest was the fruit of Fifi’s dream of birthing something new in Nigeria. The company was founded immediately she returned to Nigeria and has three subdivisions; Starcrest Investment Limited, Starcrest Associates Limited, and Starcrest Industries Limited.

These subsidiaries are engaged in real estate management, construction, building and designing, oil and gas, project management, youth empowerment and investment opportunities.

This subdivision successfully engineered foreign investments from the United Arab Emirates into Nigeria. Fifi Ejindu sort the support of the former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in influencing fifty prominent business owners from U.A.E so that they can invest in different sectors of the Nigerian economy. The former president came through for her and the investments created job opportunities for Nigerians and also contributed to the county’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

This subdivision does building designs, constructs residential villas and estates, carries out architectural services, urban planning, engineering services and interior decorating. The subsidiary is also involved in project management from its commencement to its conclusion.

She has designed and built several projects for individuals, the government and companies. The Spanish Ambassador’s apartment in Maitama, Abuja, Nigeria was a major highlight of Fifi’s work as she was really pleased with herself for a job well done.

Her work was always a point of reference and she gets recommendations from people she has not met. This is how she got to design the official apartment of Professor Charles Soludo, a one time governor of the Central Bank Of Nigeria. Soludo saw one of her work and contacted her for the job without previous knowledge of who she was. This goes to tell us that we should pay attention to detail and be diligent in whatever we do. You never know how far your work will travel.

Fifi wanted to showcase the African culture and talent so she launched The African Arts and fashion Initiative on Sunday, the 4th of August 2013, at The Dorchester Hotel, London.

The enterprise was created to publicize Africa by exhibiting the region’s rich cultural heritage and talents globally and also create opportunities to enrich African youths.

The initiative organizes exhibitions and dialogues to advertise and promote the African arts and antiques, African fashion style, African music and all other things that are made in Africa.

Prints are published quarterly on fashion journals and other materials with the focus on African Arts and Style to educate and inform.

Judging from the caliber of clients and the authenticity of her works, it is no doubt that Fifi should be worth over millions. According to research, Fifi is worth about 600 million naira.