Barely one week after billionaire and CEO of Forte Oil PLC, Femi Otedola, was spotted on a molue bus from Sango to Agege, he landed on another one on Sunday with fellow billionaire, Aliko Dangote, and Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, on Sunday in Lekki. They were on a mission for a better Lagos.
Neither the passengers he shared the earlier bus with nor the whole world would have known about it had he not shared the video on his Instagram page, a social media platform he has lately taken to with zeal equal only to the one he reserves for his business pursuits that have brought him fame and fortune.
He has since also opened a Twitter account garnering over 13000 followers on the first day alone. It is little wonder that Forbes dubbed him ‘billionaire who bounced back’ in November 2014 when he returned to the magazine’s rich list having dropped off following the fall in his company’s share price a few years before.
Worth well over $1.2 billion, those few leans years are far behind the businessman, philanthropist, and chairman of Forte Oil PLC, who was born November 4, 1962 in Ibadan, Oyo State.
There are those who would like to ascribe the fact that his late father, Sir Michael Otedola, being governor of Lagos State from 1992 to 1993, served as a stimulus for his rise in business but the facts are clear that not only has Femi Otedola been dogged, he has also learned the hard way by falling and rising in business.
The founder of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, who eventually acquired African Petroleum, and is the owner of a number of other businesses across shipping, real estate and finance, also invested in power generation as part of the liberalisation of the sector in Nigeria.
In December 2010 African Petroleum rebranded, changing its name to Forte Oil PLC with Otedola carrying out the restructuring of the business, focusing on technology and improved corporate governance. Two years after, Forte Oil returned to profit and has stayed that way ever since. And long before going on to trade petroleum products, he was in charge of marketing the family’s printing press in the late 1980s.
The Lagos Big Boy, father and husband has homes in Lagos, Abuja, Dubai, London and New York City but spends most of his time in the city of excellence.
Bet you didn’t know he still owns his two ‘analog’ mobile phones.
Take away everything from a successful person, but leave them with their mindset, and they will succeed again.