106 London properties linked to Access Holdings ex-CEO Wigwe

The man, who powered the big push that made Access Holdings West Africa’s top banking institution and one of the biggest on the continent, owned 106 properties in London, which are registered elsewhere in shell companies outside the UK, according to a new investigation by The Londoner.

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The UK-based media outlet, in its findings, named Herbert Wigwe, the former chief executive of Access Holdings, who died in February 2024, among several billionaires recently identified as using offshore tax havens to shield the ownership of their properties from public knowledge.

At the end of its findings, the newspaper uncovered 32,611 properties in London whose ownership could not be traced for a long time.

The revelation is a major breakthrough, following years of global efforts to pressure tax havens like Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands to disclose the identity of the beneficial owners of such entities, usually set up for mere registration purposes but which operate essentially from other countries.

Affluent persons typically establish shell companies to avoid tax or hide their assets, often doing so by hiring fund and wealth managers to register them as legal entities.

About four years ago, the UK adopted the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022, which requires foreign entities that own real estate in the country to register it with the government.

The law enabled Tax Policy Associates and Dan Neidle, a British tax lawyer with a record for unravelling past high-profile tax avoidance schemes, to develop a broad database of such properties. That in turn provided key sources for The Londoner’s investigation, the newspaper said.

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Tengen Family Office, based in Ikoyi, Lagos, manages the wealth of Mr Wigwe and Aigboje Aig Imoukhuede, his long-time associate with whom he acquired Access Bank in 2002, according to its website.

According to Access Holdings’ 2023 audited financial report, Mr Wigwe owned 2.59 billion shares worth N65.3 billion and equivalent to 7.3 per cent of the banking group’s entire issued shares at the time. He held 1.26 billion of the shares indirectly through Coronation Trustees Tengen Mauritius, an entity registered in Mauritius, one of Africa’s top tax havens.

Under his leadership, Access Holdings pursued a sweeping expansion across Africa and beyond, helping the corporation reach the ninth-largest bank in Africa before Nigeria devalued its currency in 2023.

As of September 2025, Access Holdings’ total assets stood at N52.2 billion.

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The report also traced 2,224 of the most-prized buildings in London, owned by different billionaires, to a single street in faraway Jersey, where they are all registered.

Called “The Espalanade,” the street is barely an 800-metre stretch. Its largely unremarkable features and facilities clearly contrast with the prestige of the high-net-worth individuals linked to them, according to the newspaper.