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With Funsho Arogundade
Two years after his passing, banking czar, Herbert Wigwe remains unmistakably present in the lives of people and institutions he built and lifted. The astute banker also remains indelible in the minds of everyone based on the bold ideas he sold to a continent: that Africa could dream big and execute bigger.
Wigwe did not merely run a bank; he reimagined what African enterprise could look like. As Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings, he helped transform a modest Nigerian bank into a pan-African and global financial powerhouse, operating across continents and speaking confidently in rooms where Africa was once only spoken about, never from. His leadership was fearless, his ambition unapologetic, his pace relentless. But the world does not celebrate the brilliant banker only for balance sheets and expansion maps. It celebrates him for intent and for believing that entrepreneurship could wear a human face. For insisting that profit and purpose were not rivals, but partners.
Through the Herbert Wigwe Foundation, education became his loudest legacy. Thousands of young Africans, brilliant, ambitious, under-resourced —found opportunity through scholarships, mentorship and access. Even in death, classrooms still echo with his vision.
In times of crisis, Wiwge’s empathy becomes even more visible. During periods of economic hardship, including national emergencies, he provided direct financial and material support to vulnerable individuals and families, offering immediate relief where it was most urgently needed.
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Colleagues remember a leader who demanded excellence but invested deeply in people. Young professionals saw in him proof that one could be thoroughly African and unmistakably global. Entrepreneurs saw courage. Students saw possibility. The corporate world saw discipline and scale. The nation saw hope.
The internationally recognised banker tragically passed away on February 9, 2024, in an helicopter crash in California, United States, alongside his wife, Doreen Chizoba and son, Chizzy.
His sudden death shocked Nigeria, and reverberated far beyond its borders. Tributes poured in from Presidents, bankers, academics, and everyday Nigerians whose lives he had touched quietly, without headlines. It was a rare consensus: the continent had lost one of its finest modern architects. Yet, two years on, grief has evolved into gratitude.
Wigwe belongs now to that rare category of Africans whose stories outlive them, not as myths, but as manuals. Manuals on courage. On preparation. On service. On building institutions that endure.
The world celebrates him today, not because he is gone, but because what he stood for is still upright while his memories lingers.
