“I never returned for my Upper Sixth. All I wanted was to get involved in business.”
Billionaire businessman Femi Otedola has disclosed that his rise to prominence in Nigeria’s financial and energy sectors came without a university degree or even a complete high school education.
In his newly released memoir, Making It Big, the 62-year-old chairman of FirstHoldco Plc recounts how poor academic performance forced him out of school, redirecting him towards business. “There was something about academia and me; we were not compatible,” Otedola writes. “I finished primary school in 1974 because I repeated a class. Even when I was allowed to pass, I consistently anchored the bottom rungs of our end-of-term examination results.”
After struggling through Methodist Boys’ High School and later Olivet Baptist High School, Otedola abandoned formal education during his A Levels to join his father’s printing business. By 25, he was managing director of Impact Press and later struck out independently, establishing Centre Force Ltd. in 1994 with ₦10 million in starting capital.
From there, Otedola expanded into oil and gas, shipping, real estate, and finance, eventually chairing Forte Oil, investing in power through Geregu Power Plc, and now leading one of Nigeria’s largest financial groups. He insists his real education came from experience: “I never returned for my Upper Sixth. All I wanted was to get involved in business.”
Otedola’s revelation challenges long-held assumptions about his academic background, underscoring his belief that persistence and vision not certificates were the true foundations of his success.
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