Nigeria’s Femi Otedola lost $1.2 billion, now he’s Africa’s fastest-growing billionaire

Femi Otedola was once the youngest Nigerian to make Forbes’ billionaires list. Then he lost more than $1 billion. Now, after rebuilding his fortune, his wealth is growing faster than that of any other African billionaire.

From Zenon Petroleum to Forte Oil, Geregu Power and now First HoldCo, Otedola has rarely stayed still — or bet small.

His growing stake in First HoldCo is the latest expression of a strategy he has followed for decades: identify value, commit heavily and hold his nerve.

The Rebuild

In 2009, amid the global financial crisis, Otedola watched more than $1 billion disappear from his fortune. The collapse cost him his billionaire status and could easily have marked the end of his extraordinary run. Instead, it became the starting point for a comeback.

Otedola rebuilt through Forte Oil while expanding into power generation through Geregu Power. He later sold his controlling stake in Forte Oil in 2019 to focus on the power business, rebuilding a fortune that eventually returned him to the ranks of Africa’s wealthiest people. He recounts that journey in his memoir, Making It Big. Now, the same appetite for concentrated bets is playing out again in 2026 — this time at one of Nigeria’s oldest financial institutions.

Africa’s Fastest-Growing Fortune

As of August, Otedola’s net worth stands at $1.9 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaire tracker, up from $1.4 billion in March. That is a 36% jump in under six months, outpacing the gains of Africa’s other billionaires tracked by Forbes.

Aliko Dangote, still Africa’s richest man, saw his own fortune grow by 6% to $30.3 billion over the same period. Nigerian cement and food tycoon Abdulsamad Rabiu posted a 5.36% gain, while Nicky Oppenheimer and his family added 0.94%.

Johann Rupert, chairman of Swiss luxury goods firm Compagnie Financière Richemont, posted a 9.32% gain, while Egyptian billionaire investor Nassef Sawiris added 1.04%. Otedola’s percentage gain outpaced each of them.

The story behind that number is not diversification or a lucky new venture. It is a single, deliberate bet on First HoldCo Plc, the parent company of FirstBank, Nigeria’s oldest lender, where Otedola serves as chairman and largest shareholder.

Betting the House on First HoldCo

Otedola’s confidence in First HoldCo shows most clearly in his buying habits. On July 30, 2026, he acquired an additional 1.77 billion shares through his investment vehicle, Calvados Global Services Limited, in a transaction worth $161 million, according to a regulatory filing with the Nigerian Exchange. That single purchase lifted his ownership stake to approximately 25.9%.

The acquisition followed another major purchase on July 22, when Otedola bought 706.1 million shares worth $56.2 million. Then, in early August, he added another 138 million shares worth roughly $13 million.

On August 14, he bought an additional 147.74 million shares, valued at $15 million. Ten days later, on August 24, he bought another 95.7 million ordinary shares for $9.1 million, taking his stake to around 27.7%.

Otedola has signaled his ambition to increase his stake beyond 51%, a controlling position that makes clear what his buying pattern has already suggested: he sees First HoldCo not as a short-term trade but as a long-term institution he intends to help steer.

The market has responded in kind. Since overtaking Guaranty Trust Holding Company and Zenith by market capitalization in July, First HoldCo became the first Nigerian banking group to cross a market value of $4.35 billion, making it the country’s most valuable listed lender.

Businessday.ng, a pan-African data platform, summarized the run this way: “The group began the year with a share price of $0.035 and has since gained 204 percent from that level, ranking eighth on the NGX in terms of year-to-date performance.” Its analysts added that “Shareholders can be optimistic about First HoldCo, with the stock gaining an outstanding 110 percent over the past four weeks alone, the strongest performance on the exchange.”

The platform also noted that First HoldCo has been the most actively traded stock on the exchange over the past three months, describing how the bank “traded a total volume of 6.38 billion shares in 108,152 deals, valued at $437 million over the period, averaging 101 million shares worth $6.94 million per session.”

A Turnaround Built on More Than Momentum

What separates this rally from a speculative spike is what sits underneath it. First HoldCo reported a profit after tax of $381.2 million for the six months ending June 2026, up 81.6% from $210 million in the same period the year before.

Profit attributable to shareholders rose to $378.7 million from $207.5 million, helped along by lower impairment charges, stronger asset quality, and improved trading income even as interest income softened.

That performance marks a real turnaround from 2025, when sizeable provisions against legacy nonperforming loans dragged down the bank’s earnings, the cost of management’s push to clean up the balance sheet before building on top of it.

The earnings improvement has given investors stronger fundamentals against which to assess First HoldCo’s sharp rise in value, while Otedola’s continued buying has reinforced confidence in the stock.

“Looking at the trajectory Femi Otedola has taken, it’s a story of conviction,” Nathanael Disu, a Senior Investment Research Analyst, told UrbanGeekz. “At times, diversification hints at indecision and lack of conviction. However, Otedola is a seasoned investor who invests huge amounts of money wherever he sees value, and it’s a similar trend with his increased investment in FirstHoldCo shares.”

What Comes Next

With his sights set on a controlling stake in First HoldCo, the next chapter of this story is still being written in real time. Investors are watching whether continued buying, sustained earnings growth, and the follow-through of management’s transformation strategy can keep both the stock’s rally and Otedola’s position as Africa’s fastest-growing billionaire intact.

If his career has taught anything, it is that the number on the tracker today rarely tells the full story. The bigger story is the pattern behind it: a willingness to absorb enormous losses, rebuild and come back with an even bigger bet.

This article was originally published by Urban Geekz