Herbert Wigwe

In the past few days, the cream of Nigerian elites gathered to celebrate the life of Herbert Wigwe.

The greatest miracle in the Nigerian Banking space is the story of the rejuvenation of Access Bank. Moving the bank from 67 out of 89 banks in Nigeria to number one required a lot of genius, and Wigwe had it in Abundance. However, reducing his legacy to his heroics at Access Bank alone will be unfair to him and unjust to history.

Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe was born in Ibadan on the 15^th of August, 1966, to parents who hailed from Ikwerre, Rivers State. Wigwe had no lack of Role models –his father doubled as the director-general of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, and a Pastor. His mother was a nurse. Wigwe never doubted what he wanted to be in the future and the course he needed to study to achieve it. When the results for the Joint Admission and Matriculation board exam came, he did not meet the mark for accounting, so he had to sit the year at home.

At his second trial in 1983, he was admitted to study accounting at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and graduated in 1987. He started as a graduate assistant at Coopers and Lybrand Associates Limited (now PwC, one of Nigeria's big 4), and by 1989, he had become a chartered accountant.

It was in 1989 that he got introduced to Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, and the two struck a friendship that traversed the corporate world and lasted the entirety of his lifetime. This friendship will be the fulcrum of the miracle of Access Bank.

From Coopers and Lybrand Associates Limited, Hebert moved to Capital Merchant Bank, where he left after he won the British Council Scholarship to embark on a master's degree in banking and finance at North Wales University in the UK. He came back to Nigeria in 1991 to join Guaranty Trust Bank. Hebert obtained a second master's degree from the University of London. He also attended the Harvard Business School Executive Management Program.

Big moves: Buying Access Bank

At Guarantee Trust Bank, Herbert reunited with the man he had been introduced to two years ago: Aigboje Aig. They rose through the ranks, and in Aigboje’s words: “By early 2000, I knew that if the banking industry took off without me in it as an owner, I would be left standing on the tarmac." Unsurprisingly, Aig recruited Herbert into this idea, and, with a lot of stealth, they began making plans to buy a bank while still working at GTB.

 By 2001, they had decided on Access Bank and set about raising the N1 billion needed to buy it. They had one big challenge, though. Between them, they had just N200 million and had to convince investors to give them the rest of the money. At 36 years old, the CBN deemed them to be 'too young' to own a bank and set about frustrating the acquisition. The hostile nature of the Nigerian corporate space meant they could only afford to have their business in the open after it was official. For this reason, they decided to leave their boss, the founding CEO of GTB, in the dark.

They could only keep it a secret for a short time. Fola Adeola, the founding CEO of GTB, who was getting ready to step down from the bank, got a whiff of the acquisition after a friend called to ask why he was buying a bank when he was telling everyone else that he was retiring. After learning that the plan had been orchestrated by two of his biggest boys, Fola took it as a betrayal. In Aigboje’s own words: “Once the public offer was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, rumors inevitably started to circulate in financial circles that two young guys had bought Access Bank from GTB. Eventually, our bosses at GTB, namely Fola and Tayo, also learned about the rumors. They demanded a face-to-face meeting at which they asked to know the truth. Without disclosing any details, we let them know that, indeed, we were involved in a transaction whose aim was the acquisition of Access Bank. It was impossible for us to divulge details at that time because such information could and probably would be used to frustrate our plans. It was an emotional meeting for all concerned. They were mentors and friends and obviously felt betrayed that we would embark on a course of action that would see us depart from GTB without informing them.

Realizing that there was nothing they could do to get us to change our minds, an agreement was reached that we should resign our positions with immediate effect”. 

And so, they went on their own. They retired from GT Bank, and Access Bank was now their baby. Like many legendary business ventures in history, this one shows that a shark cannot be kept in a swimming pool. 

When Aigboje and Hebert took over the reins at Access Bank in March of 2002, things looked grim for the young bank. With share prices at minus two kobo, investor confidence was at its lowest ebb. Getting people to invest was an even higher hill to climb. In their first year in charge, the bank grew its balance sheet by 100 percent and posted an impressive N1 billion profit before tax –greater than the cumulative profit it made in its 12 years of existence. This marked the beginning of a six-year record triple-digit growth trend. Similarly, earnings per share had rebounded to 21 kobo from a negative two kobo position, leading to a declaration of a five kobo dividend to shareholders for the first time in three years.

Sometimes, however, a sequel turns out to be bigger and better than the first part of a movie, and this would turn out to be the Access story. When Aigboje handed over the bank to Herbert in 2014, he bequeathed a bank with N1.8 trillion in assets and around the 6th (or 4th, depending on how you count) largest. A decade later, under Herbert's stewardship, the bank now has somewhere in the region of N23 trillion, with his acquisition of Diamond Bank in 2014 cementing its position as Nigeria’s Largest bank.

Outside the corporate life, Hebert invested heavily in the causes he believed in. his collection of artworks speaks volumes of his love for the arts, as his philanthropy does of his love for humanity. He dreamed of adopting one million children and, at the last count, had already adopted thirty thousand. Wigwe was awarded the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) national honor in 2023.

(Show the clip of this quote by Wigwe: "Education and mentorship go hand in hand, especially for the dynamic youth of Africa. Each interaction is a chance to inspire, to learn, and to grow.")

Wigwe dreamt of establishing the first Ivy League University in Africa. This ambition saw him invest half a billion dollars in building Wigwe University in his hometown of Isi Okpo.

At 57, Wigwe looked in great shape. If genes counted for anything, his father being alive at 90 meant the odds were in his favor. Had the chopper accident not claimed his life, together with that of his wife Chizoba and their first son Chizy, alongside five others on their way to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, One can only imagine what could have been.

In the past few days, the cream of Nigerian elites gathered to celebrate the life of Herbert. Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, gave his eulogy with tears in his eyes. Former CBN Governor and Former Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, could not stop the tears from dropping as he spoke fondly of Herbert. They told the stories of his friendship, of his daring, of his intelligence, of his taste for excellence, and of his love for family. But it was not just the rich that cried over the death of Herbert; in his community, the whole community came out to walk his corpse, causing go slow that lasted for hours. Old women, young men, fathers, and children could be seen crying like they’ve lost a blood relative. 

This is Herbert Wigwe. A man who came, who saw, and made a difference. Once, when he was young, he told his friends, “I don’t do small things”. He has lived up to it. 

My deep condolence to the whole country, for he belongs to all of us. He now belongs to the ages.