The Group Chief Executive Officer, Access Holdings Plc, and founder of recently licensed Wigwe Private University, Herbert Wigwe, is feared dead in a helicopter crash in the United States of America
Wigwe was reported to have died following a helicopter crash in California near the Nevada border, United States of America, The Will reports.
There are also reports that his wife and son were also onboard the ill-fated helicopter.
New York Times reports that no survivors have been located as of Saturday morning, the authorities said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said that the Eurocopter EC130 helicopter crashed at around 10 p.m. local time near Nipton, Calif, an unincorporated community about 60 miles south of Las Vegas in eastern San Bernardino County.
It was unclear on Saturday morning where the helicopter departed from and where it was headed.
Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe CFR (15 August 1966 – 10 February 2024) was a Nigerian banker and entrepreneur. He was the CEO of Access Holdings Plc, traded as Access Corporation until his death. Herbert was the Group Managing Director/CEO of Access Bank plc, one of Nigeria’s top five banking institutions, after succeeding his business partner, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede from January 2014 to April 2022.
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), an MSc in Financial Economics from the University of London, Mand was an alumnus of the Harvard Business School Executive Management Program.
Wigwe started his career at Coopers & Lybrand, Lagos as a management consultant, later qualifying as a chartered accountant. After a stint at Capital Bank, he joined GTBank where he spent over a decade working in corporate and institutional banking, rising to become the executive director in charge of institutional banking.
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.
Access Bank is now one of the top five banks in Nigeria and ranked among the top 500 global banks according to a 2015 report by The Banker magazine and is aiming to be Africa’s top bank. It currently serves over 6.5 million account-holders, through 350 branches and with more than 1,500 ATMs in major centres across Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africa and the UK.
Wigwe also served as the Chairman of Access Bank Ghana Limited, Access Investment & Securities Limited, Central Securities and Clearing System (CSCS) and is the current Chairman of Access Bank (UK) Limited. He is a board member of Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company and a member of the advisory Board for Friends Africa. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN – FCA), a Fellow of The Institute of Credit Administration, and an Honorary member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.
From January 2014 until his death, he was CEO and Group Managing Director of Access Bank.
