Nigeria’s banking sector offers great potential. A deep look into facts available shows that roughly 10 million Nigerians are without bank accounts, but new regulations that will allow for the proliferation of mobile money has been changing the narratives.
The financial industry is one of the sectors that requires a lot of risks; venturing into an uncertain world of finances. This gives credence to the cliché: nothing ventured, nothing gained. Hebert Onyewumbu Wigwe took this risk when he and his partner, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhueded co-founded and made a success of Access bank Plc. The bank serves over 44 million individual and corporate account holders through over 600 branches and more than 3,000 ATMs in major centres across Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa, and the UK. The bank recently opened its South-African branch.
Today, the global and dynamic leader, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, sits on the board of Access Bank Plc as MD/CEO, where he has championed the Bank’s digital expansion. The bank has also recently introduced zero-balance accounts for customers which was aimed squarely at bringing more Nigerians into the formal financial-services sector.Despite spending many years in the banking sector, perhaps what has kept Wigwe stronger for these years in the banking sector, is that there is always something new to inject into the system. Through the assiduous work and commitment of Wigwe, the banking industry has completely changed, and has had multiple innovations. The impact of mobile phones, networks and electronic banking has jeered many towards this transformation. Despite his wide knowledge in the industry, Wigwe and by extension, Access Bank keeps learning, changing and adapting. A good example is the new adaptation, the fintech challenge, which was not in existence 10 years ago.
The bank, which is an established leader in the Nigerian and indeed African banking industries, has embraced digital technology. This, in turn, has propelled the bank’s sustainability targets and its African gateway strategic drive.
Evidently, Access Bank has partnered with the Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF), aimed at nurturing the next generation of cutting-edge financial-technology firms. According to a release by Access bank, the AFF is a pan-African accelerator designed to find and invest in start-ups that implement a global viewpoint while still focusing product offerings on Africa. Access Bank plans to harness the very best Nigeria has to offer, working closely with them to make Nigeria a retail banking powerhouse.
In addition, Access Bank has expanded its operations through digitalisation of its back-office processes and functions with a business process management solution. The bank is targeting becoming a 100-percent-paperless organization, which in turn will allow for more seamless operations across all the Bank’s branches globally.
Herbert Wigwe is doing something completely different.
Over 12 years since he was the deputy CEO, Herbert has grown Access Bank’s balance sheet by 1022 per cent from $901million in 2007 to $19.7billion in 2019, while pre-tax profits rose to $316million in 2019 from $21million in 2007. Mr. Herbert Wigwe is a financial industrialist who founded the very successful financial institution, Access Bank in the year 2014. The giant strides the bank has recorded ever since inception makes a very interesting and most times amusing read for observers of the financial industry. Although, like other banks, Access Bank might have had its fair share of the economic rigmarole facing the Nation, but no doubt, the bank tops the list of those that have endured the harsh economy. Unbelievably so, Wigwe Herbert found his calling in finance at the age of 16, when he was said to have developed an interest in social development and community issues at a very early stage in life. He was born in Ibadan, Oyo State on August 15, 1966, to parents of Ikwerre, Rivers State descent.He started his professional career with Coopers & Lybrand Associates, an international firm of Chartered Accountants. He spent over 10 years at Guaranty Trust Bank Plc where he managed several portfolios, including financial institutions, large corporates and multinationals. He left Guaranty Trust Bank as an Executive Director to co-lead the transformation of Access Bank Plc in March 2002 as Deputy Managing Director. He was appointed Group Managing Director/CEO effective January 1, 2014.
Mr Wigwe, was a brilliant student and an avid cricket player in his active days as a student of Federal Government College (FGC), Sokoto, and FGC Warri. He is also an alumnus of the Harvard Business School Executive Management Programme. He holds a master’s degree in Banking and International Finance from the University College of North Wales, a master’s degree in Financial Economics from the University of London and a B.Sc. degree in Accounting from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
Access Bank under his leadership ranks among the top five banks in Nigeria, and has emerged one of the leading banks in Africa, with total assets estimated at about N7.28trillion ($18billion). No wonder Wigwe was named the ‘African Banker of the Year’ at the 2020 African Banker Awards. Observers of turns in the economic world attest to Herbert Wigwe’s prowess and his genuine potential to turn businesses into conglomerates. The man has proven to be a fervent ideologue industrialist who knows the odds and positive sides of the financial world. He is a calculative enigma, with an intent on seeing that his ideas benefit not just Nigeria, but countries within and outside the African continent. Like some of his contemporaries, Wigwe is determined to ensure his customers acquire financial freedom that may help them to achieve their goals. That is why Access bank, under his shrewd observation, for instance, fervently and uninhibitedly, sought to spread its tentacles to other shores of Africa. This brilliant idea will accelerate the modernization and transformation of the digitization economy across the globe just as he has done in Nigeria. The bank, today ranks among the top 500 banks globally, according to leading business valuation and strategy consultancy, Brand Finance.Access bank currently operates through a network of about 366 branches across major cities and commercial centers in Nigeria, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo.Banking is made easy at Access Bank through its easy ways of banking such as Internet Banking, Mobile banking, Access money, use of cards among other services. The ussd code *901# has also come handy for most of its customers, while the T-Bills makes it easy for customers to make easy payments for bills. An invention by the bank, Access Whatsapp Banking, gives customers the opportunity to communicate with the bank through whatsapp.
According to Access bank, the unprecedented ease in expansion of its customer base was made possible through its global growth and expansion. This has made it easier for it to secure a broader geographic footprint across Africa and the rest of the world.Do not forget that Access Bank merged with Diamond Bank. Ever since this symbiotic merger, the bank has been able to administer its core operational infrastructures more efficiently. This means customers have better access to most of the Bank’s product offerings, including DiamondXtra, Payday Loan, QuickBucks, the Device Finance Scheme, and its USSD channel.
Olamide Adeniji is a member of the editorial team of TheScript Newspapers
