Tributes are pouring in for Nigerian billionaire Herbert Wigwe, CEO of that country’s largest bank—Access Bank plc—who died in a helicopter crash in the US alongside his wife, son and Nigeria’s Stock Exchange ex-head Abimola Ogunbanjo.

Director General of the World Trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is also Nigerian, first released the identities of the four victims today in a post on X.

Access Bank plc also confirmed the “unfortunate incident” in a separate statement posted on X yesterday.

US media reports that the four were among six people, including two pilots, who were aboard a chartered Airbus Helicopter EC-130 that crashed on Friday night in a remote part of the Mojave Desert along the California-Nevade border.

Meanwhile, US’s National Transportation Safety Board official Michael Graham has told CNN that they are investigating the cause of the crash alongside the Federal Aviation Administration.

Eyewitnesses also told journalists that the helicopter caught fire upon impact, killing all six people on board. Some suspected weather-related factors.

Access Bank plc recently acquired Zambia’s Atlas Mara Bank to become the third largest bank in Zambia, media reports indicate.

Source:NPL