BBC NEWS reports that the co-founder of Access Bank, one of the largest banks in Nigeria was among six people killed in a helicopter crash in California on Friday. Herbet Wigwe 57, his wife, son and a former president of the Nigerian stock exchange were killed in the crash.

President Bola Tinubu described the death of Mr. Wigwe as an ‘overwhelming tragedy’. Investigators are scouring the site in southern California desert to determine the cause of the crash which was on its way from Palm Springs to Boulder city in Navada when it went down about 96km from Las Vegas. He was reported to be on his way to attend Sunday’s Super Bowl in his chartered Helicopter. The weather was poor with reports of rain and snow showers in the site near Nipton on the edge of Mojave Desert preserve according to the San Bernardino county sheriff.

Access bank founded by Wigwe in 1989 had become the largest bank in Nigeria in 2018 after it acquired Diamond bank and it was reported that he was working to expand across the continent with acquisition of banks in Kenya, Botswana and South Africa. He had plans to open a new banking service in Asia in the first quarter of 2024.

He had also invested in higher education which he felt was key to controlling mass migration, he was in the process of starting his own educational institute, Wigwe University to be launched in September in his oil rich region area where he hails from.

The University is a way of giving back to society while limiting migration in a country where so many are desperate to leave.

BBC NEWS

PICTURE BY PRIME BUSINESS AFRICA AND GLOBAL PATRIOT NEWSPAPER

Pictures by Prime Business Africa and Global patriot newspaper