Femi Otedola is a popular and influential Nigerian businessman and investor who built a great reputation for himself. The successful entrepreneur used to be the Chief Executive Officer of Forte Oil Plc.
Otedola is a man with a passion for success and greatness which is evident in his net worth all of which was gotten through hard work, consistency and determination. He is a happy father with four children all of which are top of their chosen careers. The most popular of them all is DJ Cuppy.
- Nationality: Nigerian
- Birthdate: 4 November 1962
- Age: 59
- Place of Birth: Ibadan, Oyo State
- Country of Residence: Nigeria, Lagos State
- Marital Status: Married
- No Children: 4
- Partner: Nana Otedola
- Business Interest: Petroleum, Stocks, real Estate
The 4th of November 1962 was the year Otedola was born into the family of the late Sir Michael Otedola and Lady Doja. His father was a onetime governor of Lagos State from 1992 to 1993. He is the second child of the family.
He was born into a middle-class family and was able to live a good life. However, greatness lies within him and he has a knack for success even from a tender age he will render a manicure and pedicure service to family and friends in exchange for payment. He was so organized that he even issued receipt of payment for the job done.
If at such an age he was business inclined, then it is not a surprise to see him classed in the ranks of billionaires today.
He attended the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife graduating with a bachelor degree.
How He Started Entrepreneurial Journey
Otedola took the road to success just like his father. Before his father passed, he was an avid businessman.
While most people believed that Otedola entrepreneurial journey began in 2003, the successful businessman journey to success dates back to the 1980s when he worked as marketing personnel in the family printing business.
How Otedola Became a Billionaire
Otedola was dedicated and very active in his role in the family business. In turn, he was gathering a wealth of experience that would later see him delve into the gas and oil business by establishing Zenon Petroleum Oil and Gas.
The company’s business is to market and distribute petroleum products. Two years later the company had grown to become a competitive name in the petroleum sector.
In the same year, Zenon Petroleum became the major partner of NNPC, supplying top fuel consumer companies in Nigeria including Dangote Group, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Nigerian Breweries, MTN, Unilever, Nestle and Guinness.
Business is not without risk and one you take if you are willing to grow and be successful. In 2007, Otedola took a loan of $1.5 Billion from several banks in Nigeria to expand his company by acquiring three cargoes which were named after his father, mother, and wife.
The company expanded by investing28.7 per cent stake in African Petroleum company, one of Nigeria’s largest fuel marketers. Also, the company invested in other business sectors, especially the financial sector.
The rich always want to get richer, so he further increased his stake of African Petroleum Limited to 56 per cent in total, making him the largest shareholder of African Petroleum Limited.
The company later changed its name from African Petroleum Limited to Forte Oil Plc and it led to a lot of improvement in management and technology pioneered by Femi Otedola.
Aside from the petroleum sector and financial sector, he acquired a lot of properties all over the world making him a real estate investor.
All of these businesses together are responsible for Otedola’s wealth that he and his family enjoy today.
Controversy about His Governorship Ambition in Lagos
It is a common event to see billionaire businessmen to dabble into politics. The same was perceived of Otedola to have the interest of joining politics after posting a video of himself on a popular Molue bus in Lagos.
The news or better put rumours of this event spread further following a tweet from a parody account on Twitter stating the Forte Oil boss will seek to “overthrow” Akinwunmi Ambode who was the governor of Lagos at the time.
The news sounded like music in the ear of many who believed that he follows in the footsteps of his father who was once the governor of the commercial state.
He would later dismiss the news that he is in quest of contesting for Lagos State governorship seat in 2019.
Places Where he Bought Stocks
Otedola is a visionary and has eyes for investments that will fetch him more money than he already has. You might wonder what he uses the money to do especially when you consider the fact that his children are well established in their own businesses.
Apart from having his own companies, the Nigerian billionaire bought shares in several companies including the former African Petroleum company now known as Forte oil. He also bought shares in top Nigerian banks such as Zenith Bank and United Bank for Africa (UBA).
His recent shares in First Bank Nigeria generated a lot of controversies as it was reported that behind-scene billionaire Oyekanni Odukale was the largest shareholder in one of the Nigeria’s oldest banks.
Ragged by the claim, Femi went ahead to pump in monies into Fist Bank stocks, making him the largest shareholder in FBN Holdings Plc. He owns the largest volume of shareholding and relegated Odukale to the second position.
However, this doesn’t make Otedola the owner of FBN Holdings.
At the time of this publication, Femi Otedola is the largest shareholder in First Bank, according to proshareng.com.
Was it a move to acquire FBN as he did in the case of African Petroleum? Only time will tell.
His Family
As you know, Otedola is married to his long-time sweetheart, Nana Otedola. The couple has been married for over 3 decades now.
The couple are blessed with children, his first daughter Tolani is born to him by his former lover, Olayinka Odukoya. His other 3-children born by his wife are Florence Ifeoluwa, Elizabeth Temi and a son Fewa.
The girls are very popular, Florence Otedola is the famous DJ Cuppy, also a music producer and Temi is an actress, a fashion blogger and aspiring designer.
Don’t forget that in September, the billionaire took her daughters on shopping, and gifted each of them Ferrari Portofino which was worth $218,750 (NGN84,323,750.00 Nigerian Naira) as starting price, according to Car and Driver price review.
Appointment Positions
His exploit in the business world has earned him a reputation with high profiled people within Nigeria and abroad. As such he was trusted with some key positions including:
- Committee member of South Africa commercial relationship develop in 2004
- Non-executive director of Transnational Corporation of Nig. Plc from 2006 to 2011
- Chairman of Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja in 2007
- Nigerians National Economic Management Team member in 2011
Collection of Otedola’s Cars
Like the founder of Dangote Group, who is his big brother in the business world, Otedola has over the years acquired humongous wealth that affords him the luxury to afford whatsoever he desires. Among the amazing stuffs, this rich billionaire spends his money on are luxury cars and exquisite houses.
The business mogul owns some of the finest and most expensive car collections in Nigeria such as
- 2 Rolls Royce custom-designed cars,
- A Range Rover,
- A BMW 6 Series,
- A Mercedes Benz AMG 63 and
- A Mercedes Benz Mclaren SLR valued at N250 million.
More so, the billionaire enterprise owns properties across several cities in Nigeria especially Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt. He also owns houses outside Nigeria in places such as New York, London and Dubai.
How Otedola Exposed Farouk For Taking US$ 620,000 Bribe
Hope you still remember the Farouk subsidy probe. If you do, then you should know the story involved Otedola.
Who would believe that what was supposed to be the trial that almost wrecked Otedola’s business turned out to expose a whole lot more underground secret?
The business mogul was involved in a trial when his company Zenon was involved in an alleged scam in 2012. It was during the probe by a committee led by a member of the National Assembly (House of Rep) Farouk Lawan that there is rot in the National Assembly regarding issues of bribery and first-class corruption.
Instead of diligently probing the case of a subsidy scandal which accused Otedola’s company of not supplying the products he was paid to supply, Farouk Lawan popularly called “Mr Integrity” collected a bribe of US$ 620,000 as part payment from Otedola for the case to be buried.
Interestingly, how the story concluded till today remains unknown, but the scandal ended the political career of Farouk who demanded $3,000,000 as a bribe from him to exonerate his oil company from the subsidy scam of 2012.
But what we sure know is that since the scandal was unveiled, a lot or almost nothing has been heard about the honourable member. This is the only scandal the billionaire was involved in.
What Exactly is the Net Worth of Otedola?
When it comes to the net worth of Otedola it is really challenging to keep up with it because he invests in several businesses every now and then. Also, Otedola was accused of ‘scamming’ the Nigerian government in petroleum subsidies to the tune of $1.4 million.
However, he was exonerated from the case. But in 2016, his net worth dropped drastically from $1.6 billion to $550 million.
The enthusiastic business mogul never gave up and continued to invest in new businesses which have in a long run boost his net worth. Otedola’s net worth is reported according to other sources to be estimated at $5.7 billion as of December 2021.
Who Richer is Between Otedola and Orji Uzor Kalu
Nigeria is home to several billionaires, some of them are known and others are not known publicly. Among the billionaires housed in Nigeria are Orji Uzor Kalu and Femi Otedola.
Otedola is an industrious Nigerian who owns and chairs over a good number of companies in Nigeria and has shares in different companies.
His companies include Zenon Petroleum and Gas, Forte Oil, CentreForce Limited, Atlas Shipping Agency Company, F.O Transport Limited, Swift Insurance Brokers Limited, and Geregu Power Plc. That is why Otedola’s high net worth is attributed to the chains of businesses he owns and invests in.
On the other hand, Orji Uzor Kalu is a successful Nigerian politician and businessman who also owns a chain of businesses including SLOK Holdings, Nigerian Telegraph, and the Daily Sun Newspapers. Kalu’s net worth as of December 2021 was $3.2 Billion (as of 2021)
Verdict: Taking a deeper look at the career and investment portfolios of both parties it is evident that Otedola is richer than Orji Uzor Kalu.
Sources:
- Featured Image by Clacified.com
- BBC (February 1, 2013). “Nigerian Farouk Lawan charged over $3m fuel scam ‘bribe’”. bbc.com. Retrieved January 14, 2022
- The Guardian (May 18, 2018). “Otedola denies rumours of governorship ambition”. guardian.ng. Retrieved January 19, 2022