The Board of Directors of Access Holdings Plc has  appointed Ms Bolaji Agbede as the Acting Group Chief Executive Officer of the company.

The announcement was made on Tuesday in Lagos by the company’s secretary, Mr. Sunday Ekwochi, in a notification to the Nigerian Exchange Ltd., NGX.

The appointment comes in view of the death of the company’s former Group Chief Executive Officer, Dr Herbert Wigwe, on Friday.

Wigwe, along with his wife, son, and former chairman of NGX Group, Mr Abimbola Ogunbanjo, died on Friday in a helicopter crash in Southern California, U.S.

The company’s secretary said that the appointment was subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

Until her appointment, Agbede was the company’s most senior founding executive director in charge of business support.

She has nearly three decades of professional experience cutting across banking and business consultancy services, the company secretary said.

She commenced her professional career in 1992 at Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) and served in various capacities within the Commercial Banking and Operations functions rising to the position of a manager in 2001.

The Acting Group CEO subsequenty served as the Chief Executive Officer of JKS Ltd., a business consulting outfit in 2003.

Agbede joined Access Bank Plc in 2003 as an Assistant General Manager and was responsible for managing the bank’s portfolio of chemical trading companies.

She served as the bank’s Head Group Human Resources between 2010 and 2022 and was appointed the company’s founding Executive Director, Business Support, in 2022.

Agbede has a track record in successful people integration in business combination and culture transformation.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics and statistics from the University of Lagos in 1990 and a Masters of Business Administration Degree from Cranfield University, UK, in 2002.

The Action Group CEO is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management, UK, and the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria.

Agbede has attended several renowned leadership and professional development programmes, including the High Performance Leadership Programme organised by IMD and the Strategic Talent Management Programme organised by the London Business School.