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Nigerian billionaire recounts how a diesel shipment deal triggered a financial collapse
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Says oil price crash, currency devaluation, and crashing stocks cost him nearly $1 billion
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Reveals bankers turned against him when fortunes plummeted in 2009
Nigerian business mogul and chairman of Geregu Power Plc, Mr Femi Otedola, has revealed that he lost a staggering $898 million in 2009 due to a combination of oil market collapse, naira devaluation, spiralling interest, and a downturn in the stock market.
In a gripping account extracted from his soon-to-be-released memoir titled Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business, slated for public release on August 18, 2025, Mr Otedola recounted how a single shipment of diesel ordered by his former company, Forte Oil Plc, spiralled into catastrophic losses when global oil prices tumbled shortly after the deal was sealed.
According to the billionaire, Forte Oil had ordered a shipment when crude was priced at $147 per barrel, but the delivery coincided with a crash that brought the price down to $40 per barrel, setting off a chain of devastating consequences.
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“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,” Mr Otedola said in the memoir.
The naira had weakened dramatically from ₦120 to ₦167 per dollar, compounding the debt and wiping out a major portion of his business empire at the time.
The oil magnate also reflected on how banks that previously courted him at the peak of his financial success turned their backs when the crisis struck.
“I remember how the very same banks that were begging to lend me money suddenly became aggressive overnight,” he wrote.
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The multi-sector businessman, who has since rebounded and now chairs First Bank Nigeria Holdings, said the episode taught him hard lessons about debt, markets, and the fragile nature of trust in business.
Otedola’s memoir is expected to shed more light on his journey from oil to power, the restructuring of his empire, and the mental toll the 2009 crisis had on his life and decisions.
The full account will be released globally on August 18.
