DAUGHTER OF NIGERIAN BILLIONAIRE GEMSTONE TYCOON GETS SIGNED AND WANTS TO BE NEXT RIHANNA

ABIMBOLA "BIM" FERNANDEZ

When Rihanna first launched her singing career, she may have dreamed about landing the kind of fame and fortune that would allow her to buy a Picasso.

But pop star wannabe Abimbola “Bim” Fernandez, who counts Rihanna as one of her role models, already has an original canvas by the Spanish master hanging above her bed in her Manhattan pied-à-terre.

The 24-year-old beauty doesn’t need to aspire to a life of wealth and luxury.

She is the daughter of Nigerian gemstone tycoon Antonio Deinde Fernandez, who Bim says is worth a staggering $8.7 billion.

ANTONIO DEINDE FERNANDEZ & BIM

Her privileged background might raise the hackles of many a cash-strapped artist struggling to break into the music industry, but Fernandez insists: “Money can’t buy a record deal.

“It can’t buy good music. You can either sing or you can’t.”

SMH Records clearly thought she fit into the former category. The Charlotte, NCbased label signed her last fall, and Fernandez’s first release, the single “Let’s Take It Naked,” debuts Tuesday at smhworldwide.net.

Despite Fernandez’s insistence that she didn’t know she was wealthy as a child, her reclusive 80-year-old father is believed to be one of the world’s richest men, thanks to the diamond and gold mines he owns in the Central African Republic, now rife with sectarian violence. Let’s just say it’s not the type of place you’d want to go on vacation.

He originally started out owning an oil company called Petro-Inett.

“There was a coup in the Congo,” explains Fernandez. “He made his first million, I think, [by] trading — obviously this is before I was born. They would give him oil in return for food, and then he would sell the oil.

“I don’t know if that’s legal, so if it’s not, don’t quote me,” she adds, with a laugh. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. My dad’s a genius.”

It was after Bim’s mother, Aduke, died last year that Bim finally decided to pursue her dream of stardom and step up her game as a tribute to her mom.

She sealed a deal with SMH Records in November, and a reality-TV pilot about her life is in final negotiations for pickup by a major network, according to her label’s co-owner, Michael A. Smith. The iTunes release of “Let’s Take It Naked,” a flute-infused, bubble-gum dance-floor jam, is expected soon, along with a music video and radio promotion from distributor Caroline Records (a division of the very big deal Capitol Music Group).

“It’s not even that racy of a song!” Fernandez says about the provocatively titled track. “It’s very poppy, like, ‘I think you’re cute! Do you like me? So let’s get naked!’ I want it to be that song where it’s like, ‘Turn that song on! Let’s get ready! Let’s do shots!’ ”

It’s little surprise, then, that Fernandez’s father is not vetting any of this — he’s always encouraged his family to be highly private, don’t-talk-to-the press kind of people.