Billionaire businessman Femi Otedola has opened up about his dramatic financial downfall in 2009, detailing how Nigerian banks swiftly changed their attitude toward him following a massive business reversal.
The philanthropist recounted how financial institutions that once aggressively courted his business became hostile creditors.
Otedola, in his book, Making It Big, traced his crisis to a disastrous diesel shipment ordered in 2008 when crude oil prices peaked at $147 per barrel. By delivery time, prices had crashed to $40, coinciding with a naira devaluation from N120 to N167 per dollar.
The perfect storm cost him $480 million from the oil price plunge, $258 million from currency devaluation, $320 million in accruing interest, and $160 million in stock market losses.
The businessman described the stark contrast in bank behaviour, from sending attractive female marketers to woo him to deploying intimidating security personnel outside his home. “I was waking up to the sight of hefty, barrel-chested men standing menacingly in front of my gate,” Otedola wrote, calling the experience more terrifying than any nightmare.
His memoir promises to reveal how he navigated this turbulent period before eventually rebuilding his fortune through strategic investments in power generation and other sectors. The excerpt provides rare insight into the volatile nature of Nigeria’s business environment and the fickle nature of banking relationships during financial crises.
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