On September 19, 2026, Forbes’ real-time tracker put Femi Otedola’s net worth at $2 billion and ranked him No. 2,104 among billionaires globally.
It is the highest figure Forbes has ever assigned him. It as the first time Otedola has reached that level in the seventeen years he has been on and off Forbes’ lists.
The valuation is $200 million above the $1.8 billion Forbes recorded in August, and about $700 million above the $1.3 billion it attributed to him in March.
It is not the first time Otedola has built a billion-dollar fortune. His earlier rise ended in a sharp collapse during the 2008-09 financial crisis.
Otedola ‘the diesel man’
Femi Otedola’s first fortune came from fuel. Checks by WeAfrique date the start of his energy career to 1999, when he incorporated Zenon Petroleum and Gas, though some other profiles say 2003.
In 2004 he invested more than $110 million in storage and logistics, buying terminals at Ibafon and Apapa and four cargo vessels. In March 2007, ten banks approved a syndicated loan of $1.5 billion to Zenon. Later that year Zenon acquired a 28.7% stake in African Petroleum.
Otedola appeared on Forbes’ 2009 billionaires list, published in March, at $1.2 billion. He was the second Nigerian on it after Aliko Dangote.
By then, however, the financial crisis had already begun eroding the value of his assets. Checks by WeAfrique show that Forbes’ own estimate had fallen to about $500 million by the end of that month.
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The collapse
The same oil market that had helped fuel Otedola’s rise would soon turn against him. In his memoir, Otedola describes how the position unravelled.
He writes that in 2008, with oil near $147 a barrel, he placed a $500 million diesel import order, and that crude then fell to about $37.
A worsening foreign exchange crisis raised the cost of his dollar-denominated loans. He also writes that he held on to large bank holdings, about 8% of Zenith Bank and 6% of UBA, rather than selling into a rally, and that the 2008 crash erased the gain.
By his account, his debts grew to about ₦220 billion. The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria then took over some of his distressed assets, including estates, fuel depots, filling stations and his private jet. He kept a stake in African Petroleum, which was rebranded Forte Oil in 2010.
A second boom and a second fall
Forbes returned him to its world list in 2016 at $1.8 billion, on the strength of Forte Oil. That did not last.
By early May 2016, Forbes reported that Forte’s share price had fallen 43.5% in nine weeks, cutting his fortune to about $1.2 billion, and days later to about $1.07 billion.
By October, a naira devaluation and Forte’s weak stock had cut it to $550 million, taking him out of the billionaire ranks. He was absent from the 2017 list.
The bet on power
Separately, in 2013, as the government liberalised the power sector, Otedola used a Forte Oil subsidiary to buy the Geregu power plant. The Africa Report puts the price at $132 million. Forbes describes him as phasing out his oil investments during that period. Otedola says he built his Forte Oil holding from 28% to 75% and sold it in 2019.
Geregu then grew from 40MW to a nameplate capacity of 435MW, supplying about 10% of the national grid, and paid average annual dividends of about ₦20 billion. It listed on the Nigerian Exchange in October 2022 at a market value of ₦250 billion, with Otedola holding 95.5%.
He then sold shares to institutions, including Afreximbank’s Fund for Export Development in Africa and the State Grid Corporation of China.
Forbes returned Otedola to its billionaire lists in January 2024. Checks by WeAfrique put his re-entry at about $1.2 billion. On the Forbes Africa list he stood at No. 20 with $1.1 billion, with his 73% stake in Geregu valued at more than $850 million.
In March 2025, Forbes valued him at $1.5 billion, noting that Geregu’s shares had risen about 40% over the previous year. Forbes had him at $1.4 billion in October 2025 and $1.6 billion in November.
The First HoldCo bet
Alongside Geregu, Otedola had started building a second position. In October 2021, he disclosed a 5.07% stake in FBN Holdings, the parent of First Bank of Nigeria, bought for ₦22.27 billion, about $54.2 million at the time. By December 2021 he held 7.57%.
In January 2024, he became chairman. By June 2024, his combined stake was 11.64%, making him the only shareholder above 10%.
Otedola describes the investment as a deliberate, phased effort to rescue a bank that, in his telling, was close to regulatory takeover and carried more than ₦2 trillion in bad loans. In an August interview with Nairametrics, he said, unlike his oil and power exits, First HoldCo is a long-term commitment.
In December 2025, he sold his 95% stake in Amperion Power Distribution Company, Geregu’s majority owner, to MA’AM Energy in a transaction reported at about $750 million.
Forbes noted that he lost about $200 million of wealth because the sale came at a discount to Geregu’s market price. That is why his March 2026 valuation was $1.3 billion. Billionaires.Africa reports that he put a substantial part of the proceeds into the bank.
The share-price surge
First HoldCo’s share price rose sharply in 2026, and Otedola’s increasing stake lifted his estimated wealth with it. The shares opened the year at ₦47.90, according to Otedola. On May 13, he spent ₦43.41 billion on 549.54 million shares at an average of ₦79.
On July 22, Calvados Global Services, an entity linked to him, bought 706.13 million shares for ₦77.58 billion. Eight days later, on July 30, it made a larger purchase of 1.779 billion shares at ₦124.90, worth about ₦222.2 billion, which lifted his holding to about 25.9% from 21.96%.
In all, Calvados bought 2.867 billion shares in five transactions between July 22 and August 24, spending about ₦351.17 billion.
He says he has invested more than ₦600 billion of his own money in First HoldCo, and has said publicly that he intends to pass 51%.
The group’s earnings also strengthened alongside the share-price rally. Our findings show that First HoldCo’s first-half pre-tax profit rose 83.5% to ₦653.54 billion, and Otedola cited a return on average equity of 30.4%.
In July, the stock passed Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Holding Company to become Nigeria’s most valuable banking stock. Checks by WeAfrique show that in August the group had crossed ₦6 trillion in market capitalisation, a first for a Nigerian banking group.
The record-setting day came on Friday, September 18, the last session before First HoldCo joined the FTSE Frontier 50 Index, effective September 21. It was one of six Nigerian companies admitted. Billionaires.Africa attributed part of the buying pressure to funds tracking the index, which would need to hold the stock once the inclusion took effect on Monday.
The shares had already gained 194.4% in the year to September 14, the strongest run of any Nigerian bank. The accounts of that day differ slightly. Our findings revealed a record ₦162.80, which put Otedola’s roughly 12.34 billion shares, about 27.6% of the company, above ₦2 trillion. BusinessDay reported a rise of 8.1% to ₦160, with his holding at about 12.23 billion shares, or 26.6%.
What the number means
The $2 billion is an estimate. Forbes’ tracker moves with share prices. Billionaires.Africa has argued that the figure may understate his wealth, because Forbes only revises shareholdings it has verified, and Otedola has continued to buy since.
Beyond the bank, Forbes counts a 5% stake in Geregu Power, shares in Zenith Bank, and properties in Lagos, Dubai, London and Monaco.
The concentration cuts both ways. On Billionaires.Africa’s calculation, his First HoldCo stake is worth roughly $1.5 billion, most of the $2 billion Forbes counts. The Nigerian Exchange limits daily price moves to 10%, and Billionaires.Africa calculated in July that a single limit-down session would have cost him about $87 million.
It also noted that sustained buying by a holder of his size takes shares out of circulation and can support the price independently of the bank’s earnings. The businessman who spent two decades in oil and power now has much of his estimated fortune tied to one bank stock, leaving it highly sensitive to movements in First HoldCo’s share price.
At $2 billion, he sits $100 million behind Tanzania’s Mohammed Dewji ($2.1 billion) and $200 million behind Zimbabwe’s Strive Masiyiwa ($2.2 billion).
