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Herbet Wigwe, one of the wealthiest men in Africa, tragically passed away this weekend in a helicopter crash with five of his relatives including wife and son. The Nigerian businessman was about to attend the Super Bowl in Las Vegas.
The helicopter crashed in the boundary between Nevada and California. Herbert Wigwe was famous in Nigeria and all over Africa for being a successful businessman: co-founder of Access Bank, CEO of Access Holdings and founder of Wigwe University, the mogul was iconic in Nigeria since ruling the biggest bank of the most peopled country of Africa. Wigwe also used to run the Nigerian stock exchange.
No one survived the helicopter crash, and the Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings is leaving an important legacy behind him. The terrible news occurred on Friday 9: the helicopter crashed next to Nipton, California, around 10pm. Six people were on board, and the helicopter had been taking off in Palm Springs to fly to Boulder City, Nevada. The accident happened one hour and a half after the taking off.
Herbert Wigwe graduated from the university of Nigeria and began his career at Coopers & Lybrand in Lagos, the biggest Nigerian city. In 2002, he bought a small commercial bank called Access Bank with his partner Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede: twenty years later, Access Bank would become one of the greatest banks of the country.
Today, Access Bank is present in three continents and eighteen countries: 600 subsidiaries (the United Kingdom, Gambia, Zambia, Rwanda…) and 60 million customers for the bank that was once in economic woes in the early 2000s. On top of everything, Access bank is directly encouraging employment in Nigeria, with 28 000 people currently working for the group in Lagos and other cities.