Femi Otedola, a billionaire businessman and philanthropist, has revealed how banks that had courted him during his financial heyday turned against him once his economic fortunes soured in 2009.
Otedola discussed the financial crisis that followed a significant economic loss and how the response from financial institutions altered significantly in passages taken from his forthcoming memoir, Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business, which is scheduled for publication on August 18, 2025.
The issue started when a diesel cargo that Otedola purchased in 2008, when crude oil was valued at $147 per barrel, was delivered after the market had plummeted to $40 per barrel, according to Otedola; who gained popularity through Zenon Petroleum and eventually bought African Petroleum, which was renamed Forte Oil Plc.
Significant financial losses resulted from the 2009 devaluation of the naira from N120 to N167 per dollar and the precipitous decline in oil prices.
Otedola wrote ,”All told, I lost more than $480 million to the plunge in oil prices, $258 million through the devaluation of the naira, $320 million because of accruing interest, and another $160 million when the stocks crashed,” .
According to him, the crisis made banks that had previously courted him with incentives and offers; often via the use of alluring female marketers, into aggressive creditors.
“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.”
Otedola said there was no way out of the financial strain he was under at the time, and he characterized the experience as more terrifying than a nightmare.
