That some people are born as leaders while others only try to attain that height is a fact.
There is no begging the fact that Herbert Wigwe, the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (GMD/CEO) of Access Holdings Plc, is a banking wizkid and an all round businessman.
Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (GMD/CEO) of Access Holdings Plc
A seasoned banker of many years, his monumental achievements while working as the Managing Director of Access Bank remains mind-blowing and indeed legendary.
In 2013, Wigwe was appointed by the board of Directors of Access Bank to lead the financial institution to a greater height as Group Managing Director after the retirement of Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede. Since assuming office on January 1, 2014, Wigwe has not stopped transforming Access Bank. In two years of leading the bank, assisted by some very professional hands, Wigwe confirmed that the confidence reposed in him by the board of the bank wasn’t a fluke afterall, as even his predecessor, affirmed his unique and peculiar leadership style.
Aside from turning Access Bank into one of Africa’s biggest financial institutions, Wigwe was at the forefront of enlarging the reach of the lender with the acquisition of other banks both in Nigeria and outside the country.
Some of Wigwe’s daring achievements includes the acquisition of Intercontinental Bank, and Diamond Bank, both in Nigeria. At the international level, he also acquired Kenya-based Sidian Bank, and Transnational Bank among others.
It is a fact and on record that Wigwe turned Access Bank Plc into the biggest lender by assets in Nigeria. Indeed, the chocolate-complexioned man deserves a standing ovation for where he has taken the financial institution to today.
Wigwe’s all-round success story is no magic, as it was all made possible by hardwork starting from his days as a student.
After earning a second class upper degree in Accounting from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Master’s degrees in Banking and International Finance from the University College of North Wales and Financial Economics from the University of London, he focused in practical accountancy and management training at Coopers and Lybrand Associates, an international firm of Chartered Accountants, which served as his launch pad.
He would subsequently join Guaranty Trust Bank and rose to the position of Executive Director in charge of Corporate and Investment Banking before leaving to join Access Bank in March 2002 as Deputy Managing Director.
Today, Access Bank has turned one of the “top banks in Nigeria and ranks among the top 500 global banks in the world”.
Unfortunately, Wigwe’s successes have become frightening in the face of many bankers including Access Bank current Managing Director, Roosevelt Ogbonna.
Roosevelt Ogbonna, Managing Director/CEO Access Bank
While Wigwe can be likened to the proverbial elder who knows where the tree would fall even before the chainsaw is put to use, Ogbonna is like the man who watches in amazement and in almost total ignorance of the bigger picture.
Less than a year after his appointment as MD of the bank, Ogbonna remain under the shadows of his boss who is the tink tank and brain behind the success and growth of the financial institution.
Typically put, Ogbonna pales when compared to his boss in terms of achievements, and there is no denying the likelihood that he won’t be able to achieve anything close to his boss in his time as MD/CEO, as a child of promise exhibit signs of same from his days as a toddler.
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