Before women were allowed to dream big, this Lagos woman was already making history as West Africa’s first female pharmacist

• Ore Green became West Africa's first female pharmacist after qualifying in London in 1916.

• She was born in Lagos in 1885 and excelled academically, speaking English, French and Latin.

• After returning to Nigeria in 1917, she worked as a midwife before opening her own nursing and pharmacy practice at 71 Campbell Street, Lagos.

• Her achievements paved the way for generations of Nigerian and African women pursuing careers in pharmacy and healthcare.

Today, many Nigerian women are breaking barriers in medicine, pharmacy and science. But more than 100 years ago, one Lagos-born woman had already done what many thought was impossible.

Her name was Oreoluwa "Ore" Green, and she became the first female pharmacist in West Africa, achieving the feat at a time when higher education for African women was still extremely rare.

Ore Green was born in Lagos in 1885. She was the younger daughter of Francis Colley Green, a former Superintendent of the Lagos Detective Force.

She attended the CMS Girls Seminary, St. Mary's Convent School in Lagos and later received private lessons under Reverend W.B. Euba. From an early age, she stood out for her intelligence, excelling in Mathematics, Greek, Latin and Geometry.

But academics weren't her only strength.

Ore Green was fluent in English, French and Latin, and she also loved the arts. In 1911, she famously played Portia in a Lagos production of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

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In 1912, she travelled to London to continue her education.

There, she didn't settle for one qualification. She earned a First Class Certificate in the Theory of Music from the London College of Music, qualified in midwifery through the Central Midwives Board and obtained an Honours Certificate from the Clapham School of Midwifery and Clapham Maternity Hospital.

Her biggest achievement came in 1916.

Ore Green successfully passed the qualifying examinations of the Pharmaceutical Society of London and also obtained the Apothecaries' Certificate as a Licensed Druggist from Westminster College of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Botany.

That achievement made her the first West African woman to obtain a practical pharmaceutical qualification, and effectively West Africa's first female pharmacist.

After qualifying, Green worked as a dispenser at the Soho Eye and Ear Hospital in London.

She returned to Lagos in 1917, where she joined the hospital of Dr. Richard Akinwande Savage as a midwife.

The Savage family would later become one of the most influential medical families in West African history.

Dr. Savage's daughter, Dr. Agnes Yewande Savage, also made history years later by becoming West Africa's first female doctor to train and qualify in orthodox medicine, graduating with First Class honours from the University of Edinburgh in 1929 at just 23 years old.

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Although historians say very little is known about Ore Green's later years, records show she remained active during the 1920s.

She never married and had no children, according to available historical sources.

Rather than retire quietly, she established her own practice where she worked as both a nurse and pharmacist at 71 Campbell Street, Lagos.

Many people simply knew her as Nurse Green.

She built a reputation as an accomplished professional, a cultured intellectual and one of the pioneering Nigerian women who proved that African women could excel in professions that were almost completely dominated by men.

Even more than a century later, her achievements remain an important part of Nigeria's medical history and continue to inspire young women pursuing careers in healthcare.