How I repeated class, shunned university education — Otedola

Billionaire businessman Femi Otedola has opened up about his troubled academic journey, revealing that he once repeated a class in primary school and never completed his secondary education, let alone attend university.

In his newly released 286-page memoir, Making It Big, which hit the shelves on Monday, the 62-year-old energy mogul detailed how poor performance in school pushed him away from academics and into business, a decision that ultimately laid the foundation for his multi-billion-dollar empire.

“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. My interests were definitely not in academia,” Otedola writes.

After struggling through Methodist Boys’ High School and later Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, he abandoned his studies midway through A Levels to join his father’s printing press in Lagos. By 25, he had risen to managing director of the company before branching out on his own.

From those early steps, Otedola went on to build businesses spanning oil and gas, shipping, real estate, finance and power. Today, he chairs FirstHoldco Plc, one of Nigeria’s largest financial services groups.

His revelation contrasts with long-held public assumptions and even some online records that suggested he was a graduate of the University of Lagos.

Looking back, Otedola insists his real classroom was not a university lecture hall but the business floor. “I never returned for my Upper Sixth. All I wanted was to get involved in business.

 “My father kept watch over me and drew me close. My sister taught me shorthand. I knew how to type and began typing letters for my dad. I prepared all his business correspondence.

“I was fascinated by the way printing machines treat paper. 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,” he writes.

A choice that once drew tears from his mother, he says, ultimately became the turning point that made him, in his words, “make it big.”