Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe CFR was a Nigerian banker and businessman who served as the CEO of Access Bank Plc, also known as Access Corporation. He was born on 15 August 1966 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
Herbert Wigwe had a bachelor’s degree in accountancy from the University of Nigeria in 1987 and earned a Master of Arts in banking and finance in 1991. He later earned an MSc in Financial Economics from the University of London in 1996. He was an alumnus of the Harvard Business School Executive Management Program and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2018.
Herbert Wigwe started his career at Coopers & Lybrand and later joined Guaranty Trust Bank. In 2002, he and his business partner Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede bought Access Bank, which went from being the 65th largest bank in Nigeria to the 4th largest bank in the country. Between 2002 and 2014, he served as the company’s deputy managing director.
Wigwe also served as the Chairman of Access Bank Ghana Limited, Access Investment & Securities Limited, Central Securities and Clearing System (CSCS), and Access Bank (UK) Limited.
Wigwe was involved in the creation of The Access Conference, a biennial event that engages global leaders in addressing major challenges facing humanity. Since its inauguration in 2013, the conference has engaged global leaders in debates on issues of threats and opportunities. Wigwe, Access Bank, and UNICEF collaborate to offer support to vulnerable children, orphans, and internally displaced persons in northern Nigeria. In 2016, Wigwe founded The HOW Foundation, a non-profit organization.
In February 2017, he was named co-chair of the Nigerian Business Coalition against AIDS (NiBUCCA), a private sector initiative to eradicate HIV/AIDS in Nigeria and support people living with the condition.
Herbert Wigwe Cause of Death
On 10 February 2024, CEO of Access Bank Herbert Wigwe and five others died in a Eurocopter EC130 crash near Nipton, California. The passengers were on a charter flight from Palm Springs Airport to Boulder City, Nevada, operated by Orbic Air LLC. The five others included his wife, son, former Nigerian Exchange Group Plc Chairman Abimbola Ogunbanjo, and two unidentified individuals.
Source: DKlassgh.net