Otedola: Banks used pretty ladies to get deposits from me but sent ‘thugs’ when my business went down

Femi Otedola, billionaire investor and philanthropist, has detailed his experience in the wilderness of business, revealing how banks that courted him became hostile when his fortune plummeted in 2009.

Otedola broke into the Nigerian mega business scene with Zenon Petroleum which grew from selling diesel in drums to owning the largest share of the local market.

He also acquired African Petroleum in the downstream market and rebranded it to Forte Oil Plc, at a time one of the highest performing in the stock market.

However, a diesel shipment he ordered in 2008 when crude oil was $147/barrel did not arrive until the price had crashed to $40, plunging him into massive debt.

As a result of falling forex inflow, the naira was also devalued from N120/dollar to N167 in 2009 — presenting Otedola with a double whammy: 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 slated for release on August 18, 2025, Otedola narrated how the crude oil price crash and the devaluation of the naira combined to plunge 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 seen by TheCable.

“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.”

The book, his first, has been praised by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of World Trade Organization (WTO), Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank Group and Aliko Dangote, president of the Dangote Group, Samuel Adedoyin, founder and chairman of the Doyin Group of Companies, and Arunma Oteh, former vice president and treasurer of the World Bank treasury.