Femi Otedola is a notable billionaire in Naira and Dollars. He is a business tycoon who was also the chief launcher at Augustine University Fundraising and Founders Day, where he pledged to build a fully furnished faculty of Engineering worth N500 million for the University.
Profile Summary
| Full Name | Femi Otedola |
| Date of Birth | 4 November 1962 |
| Nationality | Nigerian |
| Spouse/Children | Nana Otedola/Four Children |
| Occupation | Nigerian Businessman, Philanthropist, and Former Chairman of Forte Oil PLC |
| Net Worth | $1.8 Billion |
Who Is Femi Otedola?
Femi Otedola is a Nigerian Businessman, Philanthropist, and Former Chairman of Forte Oil PLC, an importer of fuel, products. Otedola is the founder of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, and the owner of several other businesses across shipping, real estate, and finance. He has recently invested in power generation as part of the liberalization of the sector in Nigeria.
Early Life of Femi Otedola
Femi was born on the 4th of November 1962 in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, southwest Nigeria, into the family of the late Sir Michael Otedola, Governor of Lagos State from 1992 to 1993.
Marital Life of Femi Otedola
Femi is married to his beautiful wife Nana Otedola, and they are blessed with three children.
Femi Otedola’s first daughter, Tolani, is a singer. She was born to Otedola and his former lover, Olayinka Odukoya. Later, Femi married Nana Otedola and had two more daughters—Florence Ifeoluwa and Elizabeth Temi—and a son, Fewa. Florence Otedola, aka DJ Cuppy, is a DJ and music producer, as well as a tourism ambassador for Nigeria. Her younger sister, Temi, is an actress, a style blogger, and an aspiring designer. Otedola has homes in Lagos, Abuja, Dubai, London, and New York City.
Femi Otedola’s Business Chains
In 2003, having identified an opportunity in the fuel retail market, Otedola secured the finance to set up Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, a petroleum products marketing and distribution company.
As owner and chairman of Zenon, in 2004 he invested N15 billion in downstream infrastructure development and acquired storage depots at Ibafon, Apapa as well as four cargo vessels, amounting to a combined total storage capacity of 147,000 metric tonnes. The same year he acquired a fleet of 100 DAF fuel-tanker trucks for N1.4 billion.
By 2005, Zenon controlled a major share of the Nigerian diesel market, supplying fuel to most of the major manufacturers in the country including Dangote Group, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Nigerian Breweries, MTN, Unilever, Nestle, and Guinness.
In 2012, Zenon was among several companies named in a report into an alleged fuel subsidy scam. According to the report Zenon owed the government $1.4 million. It was further reported that Farouk Lawan, the Nigerian legislator who compiled the report, had been filmed collecting $500,000 of a supposed total sum of $3 million from Femi Otedola to remove Zenon from the list. It subsequently emerged that Otedola had previously reported Lawan’s harassment and demands for bribes to the State Security Services, who had orchestrated a sting operation. Lawan was charged with corruption in February 2013.
In 2007, Otedola was appointed chairman and chief executive of Africa Petroleum through the acquisition of a controlling stake in the business. In December of that year, he acquired a further 29.3 percent of the company for N40 billion. A merger of this person holding with Zenon’s brought Otedola’s total stake to 55.3 percent.
Following Otedola’s entry into the company African Petroleum’s share price rose sharply, increasing the market capitalization from N36 billion to N217 billion in six months. In 2008, in response to public concerns over the availability and pricing of kerosene, African Petroleum launched an initiative to saturate the market and sell fuel at N50 per liter from more than 500 service stations across Nigeria.
In March 2009, Otedola became the second Nigerian after Aliko Dangote to appear on the Forbes list of dollar-denominated billionaires, with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion. In October 2009, Otedola announced a move to upgrade African Petroleum’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage terminals in Lagos, Kano, and Port Harcourt. Difficult economic conditions caused by the slump in world oil prices and the credit squeeze of 2008–09 led African Petroleum to record a loss in 2009.
In December 2010, African Petroleum rebranded, changing its name to Forte Oil PLC. Otedola carried out a restructuring of the business, focusing on technology and improved corporate governance. Forte Oil returned to profit in 2012.
In September 2015 Forte Oil sold 17 percent of its equity to Swiss commodity trader Mercuria Energy Group, giving Forte access to global commodity markets. The deal was thought to have given Otedola an estimated $200 million. In 2019, Femi Otedola sold Forte Oil Plc and announced plans to change focus from oil to power with his company, Geregu Power Plc.
In 1994, Otedola established CentreForce Ltd, specializing in finance, investments, and trading. Otedola is also the owner of Swift Insurance.
Otedola is chief executive and president of SeaForce Shipping Company Ltd and was at one point Nigeria’s largest ship owner after extending control over the distribution of diesel products. One of his ships, a flat-bottomed bunker vessel with a storage capacity of 16,000 metric tonnes, was the first of its kind in Africa.
In January 2006, Otedola was appointed a non-executive director of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc, a multi-sectoral conglomerate established in 2004 by then-President Olusegun Obasanjo to respond to market opportunities requiring heavy capital investment in Nigeria and across sub-Saharan Africa. He held this post until February 2011.
Otedola has made several real estate investments, including an N2.3 billion acquisition in February 2007 by Zenon of Stallion House in Victoria Island in Lagos, from the Federal Government. The following month he was appointed chairman of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja and tasked with driving its expansion and upgrade to a seven-star facility. He is the owner of FO Properties Ltd. Otedola has been reported to be a financier of the People’s Democratic Party and is said to have contributed N100 million to President Obasanjo’s re-election expenses in 2003. He was a close ally of President Goodluck Jonathan. He has served as a member of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) since 2004, and in the same year was appointed to a committee tasked with developing commercial relations with South Africa. In 2011, Femi Otedola was appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan to Nigeria’s National Economic Management Team.
In 2020, Forte Oil rebranded to Android PLC. Currently, as of October 2021, he was announced as the single largest shareholder (5.07%) of First bank PLC.
Femi Otedola’s Controversy with the Law
In 2012, Femi Otedola was reported by reliable media houses to have given a bribe to Boniface Emenalo and Farouk Lawan who was then, the Chairman of the House Committee on Fuel Subsidy Regime, “integrity group” a sum of $620,000. The reason reported by witnesses as pertains to the actions of Femi Otedola was that he wanted the name of his company removed from the list of firms indicted by Farouq Lawan’s committee for abusing the fuel subsidy regime in 2012. Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo were at risk of going to prison if found guilty of receiving money from Femi Otedola as receiving a bribe from a government official is an offense punishable by Imprisonment. On 2 February 2013, Both individuals Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo were charged to court by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Commission (ICPC) their trial was at the Capital Territory High Court in Abuja to face a seven-count charge of bribery, an offense that violates Section 10 (a) (ii) of ICPC Act, 2000 and punishable under Section 10 of that same Act.
Farouk Lawan plead not guilty, and initially so did Boniface Emenalo; however, events at the court of law took an unforeseen turn as Boniface Emenalo eventually admitted he was guilty and had received several bribes on behalf of Farouk Lawan. Be that as it may, new evidence provided by the persecution was very concrete as Femi Otedola was caught red-handed in a video of him giving a bribe and Farouk Lawan accepting it.
In December 2016, Otedola was embroiled in a controversy where two Toronto-based sisters—Jyoti and Kiran Matharoo—reportedly tried to extort him by cyberbullying and blackmail, claiming they had evidence of Otedola cheating on his wife that they would post on a notorious sex-scandal website. The sisters dispute Otedola’s account. According to their account, Jyoti met Otedola, straight out of university, in 2008. He whisked her and Kiran to Nigeria and began an affair with them. They acknowledge that his gifts enriched them, as did gifts from other wealthy boyfriends, but dispute that they never engaged in blackmail, or even demanded gifts.
Philanthropical Life of Femi Otedola
Otedola has made several donations to the Michael Otedola University Scholarship Scheme, which was established in 1985 to give underprivileged students in Lagos State access to higher education. In 2005 Zenon donated N200 million to the scheme’s fund. Since its inception, the scheme has benefited more than 1,000 students.
In 2005, Otedola made an N300 million personal donation to the completion of the National Ecumenical Centre—Nigeria’s primary place of Christian worship—in Abuja. In 2007 he was among a group of donors who gave N200 million to the State Security Trust Fund in a drive to reduce crime in Lagos State. Later that year he donated N100 million to the Otedola College of Primary Education in Noforija, Epe. In 2008 he donated N80 million to the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Port Harcourt. Femi Otedola fulfilled his pledge of 25,000 dollars to the Super Eagles in the match against Algeria in the 2019 AFCON
Femi Otedola Net Worth
Femi Otedola has investments in different businesses. However, his net worth as of 2022 is estimated to be 1.8 billion dollars.
Conclusion
Femi Otedola is the Chief Executive Officer of Forte Oil Plc. Femi Otedola’s net worth and success are a product of hard work, consistency, and determination. Femi has also had a fair share of business and personal challenges but never gave up. He is the father of the popular DJ Cuppy.
During one of his interviews, he said “I had about 93 percent of the diesel market on my fingertips. All of a sudden, oil prices collapsed and I had over one million tons of diesel on the high seas and the price dropped from $146 to $34.”
Despite this experience, Femi has risen to become one of the Nigerian billionaires ranking among the world’s richest. This wouldn’t have been possible if he had refused to re-strategize after the initial downfall of his company. Thumbs up to this great man of influence.
