Nigeria, Aug. 7 -- Arunma Oteh, former vice president and treasurer of the World Bank, has described Making It Big, the memoir of billionaire businessman Femi Otedola, as a brutally honest and essential account of entrepreneurship in a developing country.

In her advance praise for the book, Ms Oteh highlights a striking admission by Mr Otedola: his acknowledgment of a personal weakness at a critical point in his career.

"When a very successful person openly tells you their weaknesses, you know you are reading an honest account," Ms Oteh wrote in the blurb. "Femi tells us a frank story of how he stopped being chief executive and transitioned to being an entrepreneur to save his business empire."

The excerpt, which Mr Otedola shared via ...