ACCESS Bank Group CEO Died With Family In Helicopter Crash

The Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc and co-founder of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe, has been reported dead.

He was 57.

The renowned Nigerian banker and entrepreneur reportedly died along with some members of his immediate family in a helicopter crash late Friday in California, United States of America.

Several media outlets reporting the incident said he was on board the ill-fated chopper with his wife, son and three other passengers.

The reports quote the US Federal Aviation Administration as saying that the Eurocopter EC130 helicopter crashed around 10:00 pm local time, near Nipton, California, and that the nearby San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department was made aware of the incident at 10:12 pm, local time.

Below are 12 quick facts about the late Access Bank CEO.

1. Wigwe was born in 15 August, 1966.

2. He was the CEO of Access Bank Holding Plc traded as Access Corporation until his death.

3. Herbert was the Group Managing Director/CEO of Access Bank plc, one of Nigeria’s top five banking institutions.

4. He succeeded Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede in January 2014 as CEO.

5. Wigwe had a degree in accountancy from the University of Nigeria, an MA in Banking and Finance from the University College of North Wales (now Bangor) and an MSc in Financial Economics from the University of London.

6. He was an alumnus of the Harvard Business School Executive Management Programme.

7. Wigwe started his career at Coopers & Lybrand, Lagos as a management consultant, later qualifying as a chartered accountant.

8. He worked at Capital Bank and GTBank where he spent over a decade working in corporate and institutional banking, rising to become the executive director in charge of institutional banking.

9. In 2002, Wigwe and his business partner, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede bought into what was then a small commercial bank, Access Bank – at the time, the 65th largest of the 89 banks in the country.

10. Wigwe had also served as the Chairman of Access Bank Ghana Limited, Access Investment & Securities Limited, Central Securities and Clearing System (CSCS) and was the current Chairman of Access Bank (UK) Limited.

11. In 2016, Wigwe founded The HOW Foundation, a non-profit organization.

12. Wigwe was named 2016 Banker of The Year separately by The Sun and Vanguard newspapers.