Nigerian billionaire investor, Femi Otedola, has chronicled his experience in the wilderness of business, revealing how banks that flirted with him became hostile when his fortune dwindled in 2009.
Otedola shot into the Nigerian mega business scene with Zenon Petroleum which rose from selling diesel in drums to owning the largest share of the local market.
He further bought African Petroleum in the downstream market and repackaged it to Forte Oil Plc, which became the highest performing in the stock mark
But a diesel shipment he ordered in 2008 when crude oil was $147/barrel failed to arrive until the price had crashed to $40, throwing him into unprecedented debt.
As a result of falling foreign exchange inflow, the naira was also devalued from N120/dollar to N167 in 2009, presenting Otedola with a double challenge, low diesel price and high dollar liability.
In his upcoming book, ‘Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business’, published by FO Books and scheduled for release on August 18, 2025, Otedola recounted how the crude oil price crash and the devaluation of the naira joined forces to throw his business into debts and despair.
“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 in the book excerpts.
“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.
“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, take deposits from me. They would send bewitching ladies to make their offers more convincing, 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.”
