Access Corporation, the parent company of Access Bank, Nigeria’s biggest bank by assets, has appointed Bolaji Agbede, an executive director at the company, interim CEO two days after the death of Herbert Wigwe. The appointment was confirmed in a statement by Access Holdings on Tuesday morning.
“The appointment of Agbede is in alignment with our robust succession planning practices,” said Abubakar Jimoh, chairman of Access Holdings, in a statement published on the NGX. “We are strongly convinced that Agbede, being the company’s most senior executive, would provide the much-needed leadership to steer the company towards the attainment of its strategic vision.”
The share price of Access Holdings tumbled 6.26% on Monday following news that Wigwe died along with his wife, son, and three other passengers, including Abimbola Ogunbanjo, the former chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX), aboard a helicopter identified as a Eurocopter EC130 by the US Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday bound for Las Vegas.
Access Holding (ACCESSCORP) was the highest traded stock on the Nigerian Exchange week.
Agbede’s appointment as acting GCEO is subject to regulatory approvals by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and Statistics from the University of Lagos (1990) and a Master of Business Administration degree from Cranfield University in 2002. She is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Management UK and the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria.
Before this appointment, Agbede spent two years serving as the bank’s most senior founding Executive Director in Business Support. She has spent 21 years at Access Bank, having first joined as the Assistant General Manager, responsible for managing the bank’s portfolio of chemical trading companies.
Agbede is a versatile professional with over 27 years of experience in Human Resources management, customer relationship management, and banking operations. She has a proven record of successful people integration during mergers and acquisitions, culture transformation and execution of corporate strategies. She had formerly served as the bank’s head of Group Human Resources for 12 years between 2010 and 2022.
