Nigerian banker and businessman Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe CFR (15 August 1966 – 9 February 2024) was born. After Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, his business partner, retired, he became the group managing director and CEO of Access Bank Plc, one of Nigeria’s top five banking companies.
Wigwe began his professional career with Guaranty Trust Bank and Coopers & Lybrand. In 2002, he became a deputy managing director at Access Bank. January 2014 saw him take over as the company’s chief executive officer. On February 9, 2024, he lost his life in an American helicopter crash while traveling to Las Vegas, Nevada, to watch the Super Bowl LVIII victory.
Early Life And Education
On August 15, 1966, Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe was born in Isiokpo, Rivers State, Nigeria, or Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. His mother worked as a nurse, and his father headed the Nigerian Television Authority. Wigwe graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.[2]
Wigwe was awarded a scholarship by the British Council in 1990 to attend the University College of North Wales, which is now known as Bangor University. In 1991, Wigwe graduated with a Master of Arts degree in banking and finance.[1] Later, in 1996, he graduated with an MSc in financial economics from the University of London.[4] He completed the executive management program at Harvard Business School, and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2018.
Career
In the late 1980s, Wigwe began working as a management consultant at Coopers & Lybrand. In 1989, he earned his chartered accountancy designation.[2] Later, he started working at Guaranty Trust Bank, where he spent more than ten years before rising to the position of executive director in 1998.
Access Bank was acquired by Wigwe and his business associate Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede in 2002. The Central Bank of Nigeria’s fears that the couple was too young to own a bank caused their purchase to be delayed.[2] The bank expanded to rank as Nigeria’s fourth-largest bank between 2002 and 2017.[5] He was the company’s deputy managing director from 2002 to 2014.[6] Beginning in 2013, Wigwe also held the position of chairman at Access Bank Ghana Limited.[7] He served as Access Bank’s CEO and group managing director from January 2014 till his passing.[8]
After merging with rival Diamond Bank in 2018, Access Bank became Nigeria’s biggest bank.[9] He passed away before the bank’s official launch into Asia, which was his original intention for early 2024.[9]
The Conference on Access
Wigwe contributed to the development of the Access Conference, a leadership series.[10] Access Bank is responding to a global appeal for business involvement in resolving the major challenges confronting humanity by holding the biennial event. Since its launch in 2013, the Access Conference has regularly sparked discussions among international leaders about opportunities and risks facing the planet. Alongside George W. Bush, Nicolas Sarkozy, and John Kufuor, Wigwe spoke at the 2013 edition, which had as its theme “Sustainable Leadership,” emphasizing the value of leadership for both corporate and national achievement.[11]
World luminaries such Steve Wozniak, N. R. Narayana Murthy, José María Figueres, and Muhammad Yunus were among those present at the 2015 edition of Wigwe to talk about the theme “Leading in a Transformational World.
Charity
In order to provide assistance to vulnerable children, orphans, and internally displaced people in the northern region of Nigeria, Wigwe, Access Bank, and UNICEF worked together. The bank hosts the prestigious annual Access Bank/UNICEF Charity Shield Polo competition to promote awareness for this cause.[14]
Wigwe established The HOW Foundation, a nonprofit, in 2016.[15]
He was appointed co-chair of the Nigerian Business Coalition against AIDS in February 2017[16], a private sector effort to assist in the eradication of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria and to provide support to those affected by the disease.
The private institution that Wigwe created was scheduled to begin in September 2024.
Wigwe wed Chizoba Wigwe (née Nwuba) on July 12, 1967, and the two had four children together starting in 1994.[1]
Demise
Wigwe perished on February 9, 2024, along with six other passengers in a Eurocopter EC130 that crashed close to Nipton, California.[18] Along with him were two crew members, his wife Chizoba, son Chizi (born in January 1995), and former chairman of Nigerian Exchange Group Plc Abimbola Ogunbanjo. On a charter flight run by Orbic Air, the passengers were traveling from Palm Springs International Airport to Boulder City, Nevada in order to attend Super Bowl LVIII, the National Football League championship game, in Las Vegas.
Two of Nigeria’s biggest newspapers, The Sun[19] and Vanguard[20], elected Wigwe the 2016 Banker of the Year.
In 2016, the Lagos State Council appointed Herbert Wigwe as its State Patron by the Boys’ Brigade, in honor of “his exemplary role in the society and contributions to youth development”.[21][22]
He received the national honor of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic from President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria in October 2022.
