‘An overwhelming tragedy that is shocking beyond comprehension’
Nigeria lost two titans of finance in early February. David Thomas reports on the tributes.
Tributes have been paid to Nigerian banking titan Herbert Wigwe, founder and group CEO of Access Bank, and former Nigeria stock exchange chairman Abimbola Ogunbanjo, after their untimely deaths in a helicopter accident in California. Six people were killed in the Mojave Desert crash on 9 February, which also claimed the lives of Wigwe’s wife, Chizoba Wigwe, and his son, Chizi Wigwe.
The chartered helicopter was travelling between
Palm Springs, California and Boulder City, Nevada when it crashed about 100km from Las Vegas. The party was reportedly on its way to the Super Bowl NFL game in Las Vegas. Investigators are working to discover the cause of the accident.
Bola Tinubu, President of Nigeria, led the tributes to the victims: “I am shocked and deeply distressed by the news of the passing of Mr. Herbert Wigwe, a distinguished banker, humanitarian, and entrepreneur, and Mr. Abimbola Ogunbanjo, the former Group Chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc… Their passing is an overwhelming tragedy that is shocking beyond comprehension,” he wrote.
Herbert Wigwe, 57, founded Access Bank in
1989. It became the largest bank in Nigeria in 2018 after it acquired its main competitor, Diamond Bank. He brought a relentless drive to the company alongside longstanding business partner Aigboje AigImoukhuede.
In 2021, Wigwe was awarded African Banker’s prestigious African Banker of the Year award for a second successive year, after its move into South Africa following its acquisition of Grobank. Following a decade of rapid growth – which had seen the firm expand in Kenya, South Africa and Botswana – Access Bank had become one of the largest retail banks in Africa with over 40m customers.
African Business’s sister magazine New African twice named Wigwe in its annual list of the
100 Most Influential Africans. It interviewed him for a special issue commemorating the 60th anniversary of Nigeria’s independence. He talked of his ambitions: “We want to have subsidiaries across 22 countries over the next five years, with strategic plans to be present in the major trade corridors on the African continent.”
Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, was among the Nigerian business leaders who paid tribute to Wigwe. “I am saddened by the tragic death of Herbert Wigwe, CEO and co-Founder of Access Bank, his wife and son. He was a visionary and brilliant banker. May God comfort your aged parents, children, the Wigwe family and the staff and management of Access Bank,” he said.
Strategic acumen and dedication
Abimbola Ogunbanjo, a veteran of Nigeria’s corporate legal and capital market industries, served as the president of the National Council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) from 2017 to 2021 and as the first group chairman of NGX Group from 2021 to 2022, following the demutualisation of the exchange.
NGX Group chairman Alhaji Umaru Kwairanga said that his “strategic acumen and dedication were instrumental in shaping
NGX Group’s transformative journey. Bamofin Ogunbanjo’s leadership has left an indelible mark on our organisation and the broader Nigerian financial community... Dr. Wigwe also leaves an unblemished footprint in our private sector.”
Temi Popoola, group managing director and chief executive of NGX Group, added: “The contributions of these two respected leaders to the financial markets and the overall private sector will be remembered, and we are committed to preserving their legacy by upholding the principles of leadership, innovation, and dedication that they exemplified.”