Billionaire businessman and philanthropist, Femi Otedola, has opened up about the most turbulent period of his business career, recounting how Nigerian banks that once courted him with charm and offers turned hostile when his empire collapsed in 2009.
Otedola, whose rise to prominence began with Zenon Petroleum and later Forte Oil, gave an honest account of his financial crash in his memoir titled “Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business”, set to be released on August 18, 2025, by FO Books.
In excerpts from the book, Otedola painted a vivid picture of how a string of economic shocks, crashing oil prices, naira devaluation, and mounting interest on loans brought his once-flourishing empire to its knees.
“All told, I lost more than US$480 million to the plunge in oil prices, US$258 million through the devaluation of the naira, US$320 million because of accruing interest, and another US$160 million when the stocks crashed,” he wrote.
“It was devastating, like a terrible nightmare, but a nightmare would have been better: day would break, and I would wake up. There was no waking up from this.”
Otedola recounted how banks, previously eager to do business with him, drastically changed their approach once he ran into financial distress.
“One moment, I was the darling of the banks, who did everything in the world to court me, do business with me, give me loans, and take deposits from me. They would send bewitching ladies to make their offers more convincing,” he recalled.
“And now I was waking up to the sight of hefty, barrel-chested men standing menacingly in front of my gate, waiting for the moment I’d step out of my compound.”
At the heart of his financial collapse was a diesel shipment ordered at the height of crude oil prices in 2008, when oil sold for $147 per barrel. Unfortunately, by the time the shipment arrived, the global oil market had crashed, and oil was trading at $40 per barrel. To make matters worse, the Nigerian naira was devalued from N120 to N167 per dollar, significantly increasing the cost of servicing his foreign loans.
The memoir, his first, has already attracted high praise from global economic heavyweights. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), described the book as “a remarkable story of resilience and reinvention.” Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, called it “a must-read for Africa’s next generation of entrepreneurs.”
Other endorsements came from Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote; Samuel Adedoyin, founder and chairman of the Doyin Group of Companies; and Arunma Oteh, former vice president and treasurer of the World Bank.
