Two individuals close to Herbert Wigwe's team confirmed his death to Semafor Africa on Friday night in a California helicopter crash. Wigwe was the chief executive of Access Holdings, a Nigerian company that owns Access Bank, one of the biggest banking companies in Africa. Along with two other victims of the crash were his wife, kid, and a former group chairman of the Nigerian Exchange, which runs the nation's primary stock exchange. Not a single person survived.

The New York Times said today that the helicopter, which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States recognized as a Eurocopter EC130, went down close to the California–Nevada border. According to the Times, the incident is being looked at by the FAA and the US transportation safety body. The collision happened around sixty miles from Las Vegas. He was due to attend this weekend's Super Bowl American football game, which is taking place in Las Vegas on Sunday, according to a source close to the Wigwe team.