Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola has spent about $300 million buying bank shares this year raising his First HoldCo stake to 26% as he targets a 51% majority takeover

Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola has spent roughly $300 million buying shares in First HoldCo this year, accelerating a campaign that has taken his ownership of the parent company of one of West Africa’s oldest banks from 5.65% before he became chairman to more than 26%.

The buying spree is increasingly looking like more than a portfolio investment. Otedola, whose business interests have ranged from energy and power generation to finance, said this week that he is following a similar trajectory at First HoldCo to investments where he ultimately accumulated majority control, raising the possibility that his next destination could be ownership of more than 51%.

That would give one of Africa’s wealthiest businessmen majority ownership of a financial group built around FirstBank, a 132-year-old lender with operations extending beyond Nigeria into Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia and the United Kingdom.

Getting there, however, would require considerably more capital.

Otedola currently controls nearly 12 billion First HoldCo shares, equivalent to about 26.1% of the group. His latest purchase, disclosed on Friday, added another 138.04 million shares for ₦18.11 billion, or roughly $14 million.