Otedola: The Evolution and Revolution of His Philanthropy

Femi Otedola, the Geregu Power chairman, is a never-ending, exhilarating, gravity-defying personage and unfolding persona delicately woven into the evolution of business and the revolution of philanthropy. Ahamefula Ogbu reflects on the magnificence of the ingenious and intrepid billionaire and how he balances the art and science of making wealth with looking after humanity through his unrestrained philanthropy

Snug as a bug in a rug, billionaire chairman of Geregu Power Femi Otedola is always in for a penny and in for a pound. A cosmopolitan figure born in the ancient city of Ibadan, West Africa’s largest city. As one of the most famous billionaires on the African continent, his life, family, controversies and businesses are well-storied. Otedola’s serendipity is often spotlighted per the material successes he has achieved. A first-year sexagenarian, the business magnate wears the looks of a fiercely competitive young businessman. Soft-spoken, not often heard speaking publicly, the Geregu chair imbues enigma and energy.

Born to a former governor of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, Otedola personifies “opportunity meets preparedness,” demonstrating an entrepreneurial ebullience from a young age. With a smile always forming on his face, Otedola’s bearded visage seems to grow more luxuriant with the passing years. His bespectacled calm countenance underlies the billionaire’s depth and simplicity.

On the busy street of Lagos, Otedola, even his immaculate signature snow-white buba and sokoto will almost pass as an ordinary person. His trademark snow-white fashion of buba and sokoto is stylishly simple and symbolic. Handsome and winsome, Otedola exudes self-assuredness in a simple but special sense. His persona as a personage shines through the lives he touches, and he goes the extra mile to impact lives and livelihoods. Otedola’s wealth and way of life seem to be intricately woven together.

As of 2016, his net worth was $1.6 billion. That feels like a century ago.

Otedola, over the years, has brought to his grit, gumption and grace to bear on his businesses. At times, the billionaire has had to stare down the barrel of bruising business misfortune, earning the moniker of “the billionaire who bounced back.” Beyond his extraordinary business dimension and social reflection, Otedola admitted that the rich also cry, especially when his figurative ship hit the iceberg. Since then, the Geregu Power magnate has never looked back, literally and figuratively. Always forging ahead, Otedola has continued to break fresh ground. Futuristic in vision and fervent in passion, the billionaire businessman’s frontiers transcend immediate gratifications and grandeur.

Describing Otedola in superlative adjectives has become cliche. His life story and business history have been chronicled, and not a few can recite them by rote today. Blogs, newspapers and magazines, local and foreign, are replete with the Otedola tale of rising fortune, fame, fashion and fortitude. Yet, Otedola’s story is never-ending, exhilarating, gravity-defying and unfolding.

Otedola smiles, serious-minded. His body language bodes patience, perspicacity and passion for success and humanity. His ventures did not start today. As young as a six-year-old, Otedola was doing well in his grooming enterprise patronised by his family and friends’ circle.

“It was called FEMCO. I’d offer to groom my parents’ guests’ nails. Then, write a receipt and charge them for my service. They paid me too. I always had an interest in business,” says Otedola.

He adds, “God has been so kind. The only way I can show my gratitude to Him is to use my resources to support those who are underprivileged. This I intend to do for the rest of my life. In a world full of conflicts, diseases, calamities and inequality, we all need to show the milk of human kindness, to reach out and comfort the sick and give a helping hand to the weak.”

“You give it back!”

Surrounded by wealth and everything money can buy, Otedola’s grasp of humanity underscores his benevolent worldview of life. He understands the grace of being generous and humane. The billionaire shows by his humanitarian endeavours that he is not a run-of-the-mill, cold and calculating money-mongering billionaire. He lives a life of philanthropy well-documented in the media and widely narrated by individual beneficiaries.

When the effervescent Otedola celebrated his 60th birthday on a multimillion-dollar luxury yacht, his thoughts transcended the transient. True, he treated himself and his loved ones to the fun of a lifetime, but the celebration cuts deeper than skin-deep.

“A lot of people think when they die, they take their money with them. We’ll see. In my journey of life, I have taken the risk, I’ve done the chase, I’ve enjoyed the thrill, and I have achieved success and recognition. What next?” says the former Forte Oil owner.

What lies ahead of Otedola is imprinted in his past and present. It is the innermost innate essence finding fuller expressions in diverse ways. With each passing year, the business magnate has accumulated a stupendous fortune. But wealth does not satiate his thirst for humanity, the fellow feeling that binds society and helps its inhabitants rise above life’s vicissitude.

Winsome Otedola does not shy away from his opulence. He does not hesitate to make a gracious display of it. The frills, the shrills and the thrills all come in a dazzling package. Otedola’s charming life is filled with the grandeur of imaginable wealth but surpassed by his philanthropic gestures.
“I feel highly privileged. The only way I can show my gratitude to Him is to use my resources to support those who are underprivileged. This, I intend to do for the rest of my life. In a world full of conflicts, diseases, calamities, and inequality, we all need to show the milk of human kindness, to reach out and comfort the sick and give a helping hand to the weak,” says the Geregu Power boss.

Saving children, saving future

Famous for his ingenuity and generosity, Otedola is not known for half measures or to give in small measures. His singular donation of N5 billion to assist children of Nigeria’s terror-ravaged North-East sounded too good to be true. The donation will assist thousands of children and women bearing the brunt of the Boko Haram insurgency, including those living in IDP camps. The donation was made to Save the Children, raising funds for rehabilitating displaced and underprivileged children, victims of insurgency and banditry. But the truth of his extraordinary sense of benevolence is stranger than fiction. In 2020, the THISDAY newspaper honoured him with the ‘Philanthropist of the Decade’ award.

“Since 2019, Otedola has supported Save the Children’s programmes on the prevention and treatment of malnutrition and on advocating for access to quality education for Nigerian children, impacting over 6,000 children in the states of Adamawa, Borno and Katsina,” says the UK-based non-governmental organisation, Save the Children.

The billionaire has made several donations to the Michael Otedola University Scholarship Scheme, established in 1985 by his late father, Sir Michael Otedola, to give underprivileged students in Lagos access to higher education. To date, several hundreds of students have benefitted from the scholarship. His love for children is further illustrated when he donated N100 million to the Otedola College of Primary Education in Noforija, Epe, Lagos. In 2008, he donated N80 million to the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Port Harcourt in Rivers.

When businesses were crumbling, and human lives were on the brink at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged the world and humanity, Otedola was among the few benevolent billionaires to save lives and livelihoods from the cold grip of the coronavirus by donating N1 billion “towards the eradication of COVID-19 across Nigeria. We must all do what we can to flatten the curve.” He was that to fruition.

In 2019, he was identified as the biggest individual donor to the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) and was subsequently named by the Silverbird Group as ‘2019 Man of the Year’. The Leadership magazine honoured him as the ‘2019 African Philanthropist of the Year’, citing his “unequalled philanthropy and charitable contributions to society.”

Otedola was the winner in the ‘Leadership in Business’ category of the 2018 Zik Prize in Leadership Awards, instituted in 1995 to award prizes to exceptional leaders in honour of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s first president. That same year, the Geregu Power founder pledged to donate a well-equipped Faculty of Engineering building to Augustine University, Ilara-Epe, in Lagos. The foundation for the building, worth N2 billion, was laid at a quiet ceremony in 2018.  

In 2023, the billionaire businessman and philanthropist handed over the completed block of a multibillion-naira faculty of engineering complex to Augustine University in fulfilment of his dream to add lasting value to the institution and its students. Otedola, chancellor of the institution, handed over the complex at an inauguration and handover ceremony. But he is not going to rest on his laurels.

“It is with thanksgiving to God that I express my great delight for today’s ceremony for the commissioning of the first block of the engineering complex of Augustine University. I thank God that my dream of donating the first block of faculty of engineering building has become a reality,” Otedola notes. “On realising that the first building is a four-building complex, during my mother’s 90th birthday celebration last year, I increased my commitment to the engineering complex to the sum of N2 billion.”

Then, he announces: “In fulfilment of this pledge, I am extremely delighted to be also turning the sod today for the commencement of building number two of the engineering faculty complex.”

A firm believer in God, Otedola has spent his life in the fine blend of business and benevolence. In 2005, Otedola contributed at least N300 million to ensure that the National Ecumenical Centre in Abuja was completed.

‘Arise O Compatriots!’

Some prominent Nigerians such as Sadiq Daba and Victor Olaotan, both actors and former Green Eagles captain, Christian Chukwu, were rescued from the jaws of death by his philanthropic intervention in their medical issues.”

Some prominent Nigerians such as Sadiq Daba and Victor Olaotan, both actors and former Green Eagles captain Christian Chukwu, were rescued from the jaws of death by his philanthropic intervention in their medical issues. Though now late, Daba and Olaotan’s families’ gratitude to Otedola would remain eternal for coming to their aid in their darkest hours. The late Majek Fashek also immensely benefited from his benevolence. Otedola spent a fortune rehabilitating him when he was stranded in London. He also paid former captain and coach of the Super Eagles Christian Chukwu’s N36 million medical bill, who had surgery at the Wellington Hospital, London, just as he rescued Peter Fregene, a former Green Eagles goalkeeper, who had been bedridden since 2001.

In 2019, he offered to assist ailing Nigerian lecturer Inih Ebong, a former associate professor in the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Uyo, who was wrongly dismissed from his job in 2002.

Many more philanthropic endeavours of Otedola go unnoticed and unreported. Undaunted, he continues to navigate the unchartered path to the future.