BILLLIONAIRE businessman Femi Otedola has revealed that his rise to global prominence did not begin in a university lecture hall but in his father’s printing press, after years of academic struggles that ended with him dropping out of school.
The 62-year-old energy magnate made the revelation in his newly released memoir, Making It Big, a 286-page chronicle of his life journey, cited by this newspaper on Tuesday.
In the book, Otedola offers rare insight into his humble beginnings, academic disappointments, and the bold choices that set him on the path to becoming one of Africa’s most influential businessmen.
Otedola recalls beginning his education at the University of Lagos Staff School in 1968 at the age of six. Among his classmates was Kola Abiola, son of the late business mogul and political icon, Moshood Abiola. But while others excelled, young Otedola was always at the bottom of the class.
“Academia and I were not compatible,” he writes. “I repeated a class and consistently anchored the bottom rungs of our end-of-term examination results. My interests were definitely not in academia.”
He graduated from primary school in 1974 and gained admission to the prestigious Methodist Boys’ High School, Lagos. But the poor grades persisted. His parents later transferred him to Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, hoping the boarding school environment would spark a turnaround.
It didn’t.
By the late 1970s, Otedola’s father, Sir Michael Otedola, who would later become Governor of Lagos State had established a printing company, Impact Press, in Surulere. Young Femi found himself drawn to the world of machines, ink, and paper.
“I was fascinated by the way printing machines treat paper,” he recalls. “The white paper is placed on one end, the ink and plates are fixed, and the printed material comes out of the other end. It was captivating.”
By 1980, after completing Lower Sixth, he walked away from school for good. His decision was met with tears and protests from his mother, but Otedola was undeterred.
Instead, he threw himself into his father’s business, learning shorthand and typing, preparing correspondence, and eventually managing operations.
At just 25, Otedola was appointed Managing Director of Impact Press in 1987. But ambition soon drove him to strike out on his own.
“I told my father I wanted to become a sales consultant for the press,” he recalls. “He agreed and offered me a commission of 10–15% on any work I brought in. That was a significant break for me.”
He invested in cars to aid sales and marketing and began pulling in jobs from top companies and ad agencies. By 1991, however, the family business slowed as his father embarked on a successful gubernatorial campaign. That break gave Otedola the confidence to launch his own venture.
In 1994, he founded Centre Force Ltd. with ₦10 million in starting capital — the seed that grew into a sprawling empire.
From those beginnings, Otedola expanded into oil and gas, shipping, real estate, finance, and power. He chaired Forte Oil, invested heavily in Geregu Power Plc, and today leads FirstHoldco Plc, one of Nigeria’s biggest financial groups.
His journey, he writes, has always been about persistence, instinct, and vision rather than academic brilliance.
“The true classroom for me was the business floor,” he notes. “My lessons came from watching my father, trusting my instincts, and learning from both failures and triumphs.”
For years, public perception painted Otedola as a university graduate even his Wikipedia page once claimed he studied at the University of Lagos. His memoir puts the record straight.
“I never returned for my Upper Sixth. All I wanted was to get involved in business,” he emphasizes.
What began as a mother’s heartbreak over her son’s abandoned education became the foundation of a story of resilience, determination, and immense success.
In Making It Big, Otedola delivers a simple but powerful message: while formal education is valuable, it is not the only path to greatness. For him, discipline, courage, and a hunger to achieve were enough to “make it big.”