Otedola has revealed a shocking bank tactics and $1.2 billion loss in his upcoming memoir.
NaijaOnPoint Nigeria reports that a billionaire businessman and oil mogul, Femi Otedola, has unveiled explosive revelations in his forthcoming memoir, Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business, where he recounts both his meteoric rise and crushing fall in the Nigerian business landscape.
According to excerpts obtained by TheCable, Otedola disclosed that at the peak of his financial empire, Nigerian banks used unconventional and at times seductive methods to win his favor, including deploying “bewitching ladies” to entice him into placing deposits and taking out loans.
“One moment, I was the darling of the banks, who did everything in the world to court me… They would send bewitching ladies to make their offers more convincing,” he wrote. “And now I was waking up to the sight of hefty, barrel-chested men standing menacingly in front of my gate.”
The memoir also captures the dark period of his career when global crude oil prices crashed and the naira sharply devalued, wiping out a massive chunk of his fortune. He detailed losing over $1.2 billion, broken down as follows:
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$480 million from the fall in oil prices
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$258 million due to naira devaluation
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$320 million in accumulating interest
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$160 million from a crashing stock market
“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 revealed.
The memoir, published by FO Books, is scheduled for official release on August 18, 2025.
In a previous post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle dated July 17, the Chairman of First Bank Holdings described the upcoming book as a deeply personal account of the lessons, failures, and triumphs that defined his entrepreneurial journey.
“I look forward to opening this conversation with entrepreneurs and visionaries across the world,” he wrote. “In these pages, I’ve shared the real stories – the moments of doubt, the breakthroughs, and the principles that guided me through it all.”