I was sitting down to interview Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede after a fairly long interregnum - my last meeting with him was a few years ago when he invited me to his pile in the English countryside and I had the privilege of meeting his charming wife, Ofovwe. We chatted then about his new ventures in business - setting up Coronation Capital, the Tengen Family Office, and the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation that he runs with his wife.
Unfortunately time was short, I was travelling that evening, and I had many questions in mind that I was unable to ask him - so when the opportunity to sit down with him again presented itself, I jumped at it. Aig is now back at the bank which he calls his favourite 'baby', this time as chairman of Access Holdings.
During the course of a fairly long career in journalism, I have met and interviewed hundreds of people in various occupations - a very few remain clearly etched in one's mind and an even fewer number are what we journalists feel proprietorial towards - those that we believe, often wrongly, that we 'discovered', that is, interviewed before the spotlight turned its full glare towards them.
In my case, this happens to be Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede. I first met him a lifetime ago when Nigerian banking was emerging from the ruins of the earlier, virtually unregulated system - described as 'the wild west era'. He and Herbert Wigwe, who was also an Executive Director at Guaranty Trust Bank, had bought out Access Bank, which was struggling at the shallow end of the banking industry pond in 2002.
Originally published by African Business.