Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola gave $14 million to charity in 2019 and just explained why he has no regrets

Femi Otedola did not announce a new donation on June 5. He did something arguably more instructive. The Nigerian billionaire reached back seven years and held up a moment from 2019 as a statement about what he thinks wealth is actually for.

In a post shared across his X and Instagram accounts, Otedola republished a video from November 2019, the night he wrote a cheque for N5 billion, approximately $14 million at the time, in favour of Save the Children UK at a gala dinner organised by his daughter Florence Otedola, better known as DJ Cuppy, at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja. The funds were designated for children affected by the insurgency in Borno, Adamawa and Katsina states in northeastern Nigeria. It remains the largest single cash donation by any Nigerian individual to a charity, a record that has stood for seven years.

"Throwback to 2019 when I donated $14,000,000 to Save the Children UK to support children across Northern Nigeria," Otedola wrote. "True wealth is not measured by what we keep, but by the lives we change."

In the throwback video, a younger version of the same man was asked by an interviewer why he had made the donation. His answer that night was the kind of thing that sounds simple and lands differently when you understand the context of the man saying it. "In my life, my journey, I've taken the risk, I've done the chase, I've enjoyed it. I've failed, I've achieved success and recognition. What next? You give it back. A lot of people think when they die they'll take their money with them. We'll see."

The revisiting of that moment on June 5 comes against the backdrop of Otedola's recently published memoir, Making It Big, a 286-page autobiography released in 2025 that traces his journey from academic struggle through the building of Zenon Petroleum and Geregu Power into major pillars of Nigeria's energy and financial landscape. The book details his philanthropic record in unusual depth, listing a range of donations that span decades and totalling approximately N11.57 billion across schools, churches, medical bills for ailing public figures and community infrastructure. The $14 million Save the Children donation is the centrepiece of that record.

Otedola's philanthropy has always been rooted in a personal philosophy shaped explicitly by his parents. In Making It Big, he credits his mother with passing on "the spirit of charity" and his father, former Lagos State Governor Michael Otedola, with demonstrating "kindness and generosity personified." He describes his father's magnanimity as "remembered far and wide" and connects it directly to his own approach to giving. The late Michael Otedola established a scholarship scheme for indigent students, which his son later continued and expanded.

The $14 million donation was made through the DJ Cuppy Foundation, his daughter's charitable vehicle, and was directed specifically toward children displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency in northeastern Nigeria. Save the Children's then-CEO Kevin Watkins pledged at the event that every penny would be deployed directly to improving the lives of children affected by the conflict. Aliko Dangote, who attended the gala, contributed an additional N100 million on the night.

Otedola's net worth has been estimated at approximately $1.8 billion, drawn from his stakes in Geregu Power Plc, First Bank Nigeria parent company FirstHoldCo, real estate and other investments. He maintains homes in Lagos, Abuja, London, Dubai and Monte Carlo. The man who can afford all of those things chose June 5 to remind the people who follow him that his definition of wealth points in a different direction.