Banks once wooed me with ladies, sent thugs when my business crashed – Otedola

Billionaire businessman and philanthropist, Femi Otedola, has opened up about the drastic shift in his relationship with banks following a major downturn in his business empire in 2009.

In excerpts from his highly anticipated memoir, “Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business,” scheduled for release on August 18, 2025, Otedola reflects on how the same financial institutions that once courted him during his rise to wealth quickly turned hostile when his business fortunes dipped.

Otedola recounts a period of severe financial crisis, detailing the emotional and professional toll it took on him as banks that previously offered him VIP treatment abruptly withdrew support, tightened credit lines, and treated him with suspicion.

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Otedola, who rose to prominence through Zenon Petroleum and later acquired African Petroleum, renamed Forte Oil Plc, said trouble began after a diesel shipment he ordered in 2008, when crude oil was priced at $147 per barrel, was delivered after the market had crashed to $40 per barrel.

The sharp drop in oil prices, combined with a naira devaluation from N120 to N167 per dollar in 2009, led to severe financial losses.

“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,” Otedola wrote.

He said the crisis turned banks that had previously courted him with offers and incentives, often using attractive 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 described the experience as more harrowing than a nightmare, noting that there was no escape or relief from the financial pressure he faced during that period.