Overview:
Access Holdings said in a statement on Sunday that Herbert Wigwe died in the plane crash along with his wife and son in California on Friday.
The CEO of Nigeria Access Bank Group, which has acquired an 80 percent stake in Uganda’s Finance Trust Bank Ltd, died in a helicopter crash in the United States on Friday.
Access Holdings said in a statement on Sunday that Herbert Wigwe died in the plane crash along with his wife and son in California on Friday.
“Dr Wigwe died alongside his wife and son on Friday, February 9, 2024, in a helicopter accident in the United States. The entire Access family mourns the loss of Herbert, Doreen and Chizi,” they said.
US National Transportation Safety Board member Michael Graham on Saturday told journalists that the ill-fated helicopter had departed from Palm Springs, California on the way to Boulder City, Nevada.
But about 90 minutes after the charter flight took off, “the helicopter impacted the terrain south of I-15 near Halloran Springs, California,” about 120 kilometers northeast of the city of Barstow.
He said two crew members and four passengers were killed.
Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu decribed the crash as tragedy “that is shocking beyond comprehension.”
“The President condoles with the Wigwe and Ogunbanjo families, the business community, and all those impacted by this harrowing incident,” the presidency said in a statement yesterday.
World Trade Organisation Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said she was “terribly saddened by the news of the terrible loss of Herbert Wigwe, Group CEO Access Bank, his wife and son as well as Bimbo Ogunbanjo in a helicopter crash.”
Access is Nigeria’s biggest bank by assets, according to Bloomberg.
Access Bank, which has more than 700 branches and service outlets in three continents, last month announced that as part of their acquisition of Finance Trust Bank, they will inject funds in it to boost its capital base, which will help promote financial inclusion and product diversification.
“Access Holdings Plc is pleased to announce that its flagship subsidiary, Access Bank Plc, has entered into a definitive agreement with the Ugandan-based Finance Trust Bank Ltd (FTB) and its selling institutional shareholders for the acquisition of a majority equity stake in FTB,” said Access Holdings in a public notice.