Otedola: How Banks Sent Pretty Ladies To Get Deposits From Me

Posted by African Examiner Business News, Featured, Latest Headlines, News From The State Tuesday, August 5th, 2025

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Nigerian billionaire, Femi Otedola, has opened up about his experience in the business world revealing that banks became hostile to him after his fortune decreased in 2009.

It is worth recalling that Otedola came into the Nigerian mega business scene with Zenon Petroleum, which increased from selling diesel in drums to acquiring the largest share of the local market.

He also got African Petroleum in the downstream market and changed it to Forte Oil Plc, and at one time, the stock of the company became one of the highest performing in the stock market.

However, a diesel shipment he purchased in 2008, when crude oil was $147/barrel, did not come until the price had crashed to $40, and this put him into massive debt.

Due to falling forex inflow, the naira was also devalued from N120/dollar to N167 in 2009, making the billionaire businessman to have a double problem of 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 disclosed how the crude oil price crash and the devaluation of the naira combined to push his business into debt 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.”