By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Ms Bolaji Agbede has been appointed as the acting group chief executive of Access Holdings Plc, a statement from the organisation on Monday disclosed.
Her appointment followed the death of the group CEO of the company, Mr Herbert Wigwe, in a helicopter crash in the United States over the weekend.
Mr Wigwe died along with his wife, son, pilots, and the former group chairman of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc, Mr Abimbola Ogunbanjo.
In the statement, Access Holdings emphasised that the appointment of the acting group CEO was subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the banking sector regulator.
Until her recent appointment, Ms Agbede was the company’s most senior founding executive director in charge of Business Support.
“The appointment of Ms Agbede is in alignment with our robust succession planning practices.
“We are strongly convinced that Ms Agbede, being the company’s most senior executive with exceptionally rich, professional and leadership experience and understanding of the Access culture, would provide the much-needed leadership to steer the company towards the attainment of its strategic vision of building a globally connected community and ecosystem, inspired by Africa for the world,” the Chairman of Access Holdings, Mr Abubakar Jimoh, was quoted as saying in the statement signed by the organisation’s secretary, Mr Sunday Ekwochi.
Ms Agbede has nearly three decades of professional experience cutting across banking and business consultancy services.
She commenced her professional career in 1992 at Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) and served in various capacities within the Commercial Banking and Operations functions rising to the position of Manager in 2001.
The acting group CEO served as the chief executive of JKG Limited, a business consulting outfit in 2003, and joined Access Bank Plc later in the year as an Assistant General Manager and was responsible for managing the bank’s portfolio of chemical trading companies.
She served as Access Bank’s Head of Group Human Resources between 2010 and 2022 and was appointed the company’s founding Executive Director for Business Support in 2022.
Ms Agbede holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Lagos and a Masters of Business Administration Degree from Cranfield University UK.
Modupe Gbadeyanka