US chopper accident kills Nigerian bank chief

The person who helped start Access Bank in Nigeria has died in a helicopter crash in California along with five other people.

Herbert Wigwe, his wife, son, and a former president of the Nigerian stock exchange all died in the accident.

President Bola Tinubu said that Mr. Wigwe’s death is a very sad and shocking event.

Investigators are searching the site in the desert in southern California to figure out what caused the crash.

The helicopter that had been rented crashed about 96km from Las Vegas on its way from Palm Springs to Boulder City in Nevada.

Nigerian media reported that a 57-year-old banker was traveling to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl on Sunday.

The San Bernardino county sheriff’s department said the accident happened close to Nipton, on the edge of the Mojave Desert Preserve. The weather was bad, with reports of rain and snow showers in the area.

Mr Wigwe started Access Bank in 1989. It became the biggest bank in Nigeria in 2018 when it bought Diamond Bank, its main rival.

In the last few years, Mr. Wigwe has been busy expanding his business to other countries in Africa. He bought banks in Kenya, South Africa, and Botswana.

He was going to start a new bank in Asia in early 2024.

People are sending their respects after hearing about his death. President Tinubu was very surprised and couldn’t understand it. The president’s office said that his death is really bad news for Nigeria and the banking industry in Africa.

In a newspaper article earlier this year, Mr. Wigwe said that putting money into college and universities is very important. It can help to stop lots of people from moving to other countries, which is causing problems in many places.

Thinking about that, he was working on creating his own school called Wigwe University. It was supposed to start in September in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria, where he came from.

We must look at the big picture and consider all aspects of global migration, starting with how we usually help other countries develop. The best place to control migration is not in the middle of the Mediterranean, the English Channel, or the Rio Grande. Many migrants are very eager to leave their home countries. He said he wanted to give back to society through his university.