Business mogul Femi Otedola has revealed that during the peak of his business success, banks went as far as sending “bewitching ladies” to convince him to deposit money and take loans.
Otedola shared this in his upcoming memoir, Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business, set for release on August 18, 2025. The book, published by FO Books, details his rise and fall in the business world, including how he lost hundreds of millions of dollars during a financial crisis.
“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,” he wrote.
“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 oil tycoon explained how global events changed everything for him. In 2008, he had ordered a diesel shipment when crude oil was trading at $147 per barrel, but by the time it arrived, the price had dropped to $40.
“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 said.
“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.”
Otedola entered the Nigerian oil business with Zenon Petroleum, selling diesel in drums. He went on to acquire African Petroleum and transformed it into Forte Oil, which became one of the best-performing companies on the stock exchange at the time.
His downfall, however, came after the naira was devalued from N120 to N167 to the dollar in 2009, leaving him with massive dollar debts and a struggling market.
