Leaving the Tarmac: Buying a Bank in Africa

by Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede

"Aig … gives meaning to grit and authenticity, taking us on a journey that closes the gap between harsh reality and one's aspiration, giving young Nigerians, especially women in the finance sector the inspiration to dream, weather the storm and achieve greatness." -- Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations
THE MOST COMPELLING BUSINESS SUCCESS STORY TO COME OUT OF AFRICA

When Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede and Herbert Wigwe bought Access Bank in 2002 it was one of the smallest and most crisis-prone banks in Nigeria. Their goal was to build it into one of the biggest and strongest banks in the country.

Leaving the Tarmac is the story of their success and it reads like a financial thriller, while at the same time providing a detailed blueprint for how to create a sustainable business founded on excellence, how to build and lead a winning team and how to operate successfully in emerging markets.

The author has written with searing honesty about the set-backs as well as the triumphs that they met with along the way, providing an unrivalled insight for anyone planning to build a company or do business in the volatile but high-growth markets of modern Africa.

REVIEWS

“Aig-Imoukhuede … gives us a frontline account of what it means to seize opportunities and weather risks in Africa's banking industry. I recommend the book to all who want to get an inside view of what it takes to create and grow a successful business in Nigeria's challenging but opportunity-laden business environment.” -- Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization and Nigerian Minister for Finance (2003-2006, 2011-2015)

"I robustly recommend Leaving The Tarmac as a must-read across all sectors. For leaders who are at the cutting edge of significant breakthroughs for their businesses, this is a manual! The wealth of experience and candor displayed by the writer speaks to what matters most to his heart, sustainable African development." -- Aliko Dangote, GCON, President and Chief Executive, Dangote Group

"Insight into leadership styles, institution-building, and the importance of courage, hard work and strategic thinking. Recommended reading for anyone interested in the history of Nigerian banking during its most interesting and challenging transformations, as well as in how to be an entrepreneur and then build an institution that outlasts the founder. A story worth telling and retelling." -- Muhammad Sanusi II, CON, 14th Emir of Kano and Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria from 2009 to 2014

"A dramatic account of efforts to tame the wild frontier of Nigerian banking into a reasonably well-ordered financial services industry." -- Dele Olojede, International journalist, Publisher and Pulitzer Prize winner

"A powerful tale of leadership and institution-building amidst weak regulatory institutions and a changing cast of politicians, Central Bank Governors, and competitors. I loved reading this book." -- Ngaire Woods, Founding Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

"The book provides an insider's view of the meticulous planning, sheer hard work, resilience, and grit that produced the modern Access Bank. A high-octane blend of professionalism, ambition, and discipline." -- Professor Peter Tufano, Dean, Said Business School, University of Oxford

"Virtually all 195 pages were brimming with very useful tips and hints ... All in all an excellent and highly motivating story." -- Atedo Peterside, CON, Founder, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc & board member, Standard Bank of South Africa

Genres: Business, Finance, Memoir

183 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 25, 2021

Reviews

[Lanre Dahunsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Leaving the tarmac, Nigerian Entrepreneur and former group managing director of Access Bank Plc shares how he and Herbert Wigwe turned Access Bank, a crisis-prone Nigerian Bank they bought in 2002, into one of the most admired banks in Nigeria and Africa. Aigboje gives the readers a front-row seat to the challenges, setbacks, successes, and failures they had to deal with in the process of building a world-class financial institution in an environment like Nigeria.

Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede opens the book with:

It is a story that shows how you can build a world-class business in a relatively short time if you lay the right foundations, have good core values, and do the right things. It is also a snapshot of a decade in which an enormous amount has changed in the world of international finance, politics, and power, particularly within Africa.


The Tarmac Story

I was born in Ibadan to parents who were both in the civil service. We moved to Lagos soon thereafter and since then Lagos has been home for me. At the age of ten I was privileged to attend one of Nigeria’s elite Unity Secondary Schools, the Federal Government College Kaduna, which was a thousand kilometres by road from Lagos. The two popular means of travel at the time for schoolchildren were trains or commercial aeroplanes. Apart from my maiden journey to Kaduna to attend the school for the first time, and another occasion when my mother was attending a National Council of Women Society event in Kaduna, which happened to coincide with my travel date, on all my journeys to and from school I was unaccompanied.

On this particular occasion I was flying alone to Lagos, just me and my small suitcase sitting in the departure lounge, waiting nervously for my flight to be called. I was flying Nigeria Airways, then the only way to fly commercially within Nigeria. The airline was a bloated state-owned monopoly that personified all that was bad about government running a business. It was bureaucratic, corrupt and provided an atrociously poor level of service; getting on board a flight required connections with the ground staff and a confirmed ticket never guaranteed you a seat on the plane. But in my innocence I did not know how it all worked.

When the airport staff announced that the plane was ready for boarding there was suddenly a mad scramble as the more experienced passengers leapt to their feet and dashed out to get on board. As I struggled towards the plane with my suitcase I was elbowed out of the way by many people much bigger and stronger than me. By the time I reached the bottom of the steps to the plane the door at the top had been slammed shut, all the seats having been filled. As I stood with my suitcase, watching the plane take off without me, tears streamed down my face and I vowed that never again would I be left behind on the tarmac while everyone else was flying off.

As I stood with my suitcase, watching the plane take off without me, tears streamed down my face and I vowed that never again would I be left behind on the tarmac while everyone else was flying off.

Avid Reader

At the beginning of my career I was inspired by reading books about the success of great American and European bankers such as the Rothschilds and J.P. Morgan, and about companies like Sony, Apple, and Hewlett Packard, books that were always readily available in airport bookstores.

Business Literature on African/Nigerian Businesses

There has been very little, however, written about African companies or indeed Nigerian businesses, despite the fact that some of these organizations possess the most interesting business stories of our times, and despite the fact that Nigeria has the potential to be one of the most successful economies in the world if the right business philosophies can be introduced and adopted by the big companies as well as by the politicians and others in positions of power.

Emotional Intelligence

Historically the private sector in Nigerian business has not been strong on issues of emotional intelligence. A business community where the hard IQ issues of growth, expansion and profitability dominate so totally is bound to face difficulties in a modern world where a greater degree of sophisticated thinking is needed in order to tackle corporate issues such as risk and sustainability.

In my view the world’s developed economies started out by putting an emphasis on leveraging the factors of production to the highest degree of efficiency with little consideration for environmental, social and other such issues. As their businesses matured they learned to act in a fashion that would ensure their long-term sustainability, particularly as regards their role and relevance to their host communities.

Commercial and Merchant Banks

When I commenced my banking career in 1988 there were two main banking models that characterised the sector; Merchant Banking and Commercial Banking, the first also called wholesale banking involved providing corporate loans, debt/capital advisory services and other financial solutions to large corporate customers, the second commonly referred to as retail banking involved cheque/cash handling services, and other financial solutions to individuals and corporate customers. The leading Merchant Banks maintained technical partnerships with well-respected American Investment Banks and I recall that four Merchant Banks stood out namely:

Continental Merchant Bank, (Chase Manhattan Bank),
International Merchant Bank (First Chicago),
ICON Merchant Bank (Morgan Guaranty)
NAL Merchant Bank (American Express Bank).
Commercial Banks

The Commercial Banks were dominated by the ‘Big Four’, namely

First Bank (originally Standard Bank),
Union Bank (originally Barclays Bank),
United Bank for Africa (UBA), a joint venture led by the French bank BNP and
Afribank, formerly the International Bank for West Africa (BIAO).
All of them had been indigenised as public companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange; their ownership comprised the Nigerian Government as well as the general public. Employees of the big four started at the bottom rungs of the career ladder rising through the ranks as clerical officers into positions of management in a somewhat pseudo colonial working environment.

No Knowledge is wasted

Immediately after law school I joined Continental Merchant Bank3, one of the yuppie merchant banks. I soon discovered that I enjoyed the practice of banking far more than functioning as a legal officer and decided that at the right time I would make a move to core banking, a decision I have never regretted. My three years as a legal officer, however, would prove invaluable throughout my banking career. Nothing is ever wasted when it comes to accruing knowledge, experience and skills.

Chapter 2: Buying the bank

The ability to sustain the change required to turn around a distressed bank depends more on the quality of its leadership and the strength of its values than the expertise of the management consultants who are engaged to try and put things right.

Herbert Wigwe

I chose, however, not to dream alone of owning my own bank. I made sure my professional colleague and friend Herbert Wigwe drank some of the same entrepreneurial juice and managed to get him thinking along similar lines. We were the same age, born just one month apart, and both of us had parents who were civil servants. We both went to Federal Government colleges, which were fiercely competitive and where you were taught how to be independent. Our colleges had also afforded us an understanding of Nigeria and the true meaning of federalism, given that Unity Colleges were melting pots of Nigeria’s many ethnic and tribal groups. We both understood the importance of forming alliances and making broad friendships. Herbert was a chartered accountant and economist and I had studied law. We had both chosen to get into the banking sector after qualifying and having met through mutual friends in 1989, we both ended up working at GTB in 1991.

Herbert and I had worked well together at GTB, where he had managed the entire portfolio of corporate banking relationships. Between us we felt highly confident of succeeding in the gargantuan task we were taking on, although we could not possibly have predicted the financial turmoil which was to rock the world, including Africa, over the coming decade, and the enormous scale of the changes that would take place throughout the Nigerian banking system. Herbert attended the same three-month senior management programme at Harvard the year after me, by which time I had already planted the seeds in his mind about the possibility of us buying a bank together. He tested the idea against everything that he learned in the classroom in Harvard and returned to Nigeria at the end of the course feeling as certain as I was that this was indeed the right way to go.

I liked the idea of having a partner for this venture because I believed that this way we would have ‘four eyes’ of leadership instead of two, which is always a good idea in any situation, particularly one as complex as building a bank

Buying the Bank at 36

Despite this hitch we had become the owners of the bank in March 2002. At that time I was still only thirty-six years old, but I already had had ten years of senior management banking experience at GTB, where I had risen from being middle manager to working next to the managing director at the top of one of the best-run banks in the country and had been privileged to learn the secrets of building a highly successful business.

At the beginning of the new century the ten largest Nigerian banks accounted for around half of the industry’s total assets and liabilities, while most of the rest of the country’s banks each had a capitalisation of less than ten million dollars. Even the largest bank only had a capital base of US$240-million, half the size of the capital base of the smallest bank in Malaysia.

Corruption

Beyond bribes, leakages and theft of public funds, the truly debilitating consequence of corruption is the fact that in any nation where corruption is rife, merit cannot have its way. In a globalised world the ability of individuals, companies, industries and entire nations to grow and develop on a sustainable basis is a function of their competitiveness. Corruption has implanted the virus of mediocrity in several aspects of Nigerian life to the point where our performance in many fields of endeavour is much worse today than it was fifty years ago.

Lucifer Effect theory, which argues that within all men lies an inherent capacity to do evil.

Value Proposition

Products can always be imitated by competitors but service delivery cannot. Service, therefore, was inevitably the battleground for increasing our market share and we had to ensure that we continuously redefined our service standards to attract and retain our target customers. While we were able to deliver an extremely high level of service in our first five years, the challenges of rapid expansion and inorganic growth became a major issue and we struggled to maintain high standards of service across the entire value chain following the acquisition of Intercontinental in 2011.

There are too many unexplained coincidences, accidents of timing, events of chance that can only be attributed to the Almighty.

Staying Lean

We were determined that we would not become a paternalistic organisation, which was how the godfather-run banks had operated in the past. We wanted to maintain a competitive, professional edge. We were determined to resist the temptation to go soft before attaining our goals. We didn’t, for instance, intend to go for large, grandiose offices and we kept our office doors open for anyone who wished to pop in and discuss any subject.

‘The Access Way’ – Crafting the Access Bank Culture

Whenever I read the stories of successful companies such as Sony and Hewlett Packard, I was always struck by the amount of time they invested in thinking through their corporate cultures. They would have the ‘Sony Way’ or the ‘HP Way’ all written up so that new recruits knew exactly what they were buying into. We wanted to do the same and so together with Bolaji Agbede, head of Human Resources for Access Bank plc, we wrote a guide called ‘The Access Way’ and created an electronic archive of past events, internal memos, etc., so that new employees could have points of reference by which they could connect with the history of the company.

Expect the Unexpected:

As is often the case, even in the most well-planned operations, the unexpected happens. Irrespective of how many times I watch Zero Dark Thirty, the film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden at the moment when one of the US Military helicopters unexpectedly crash lands my heart skips a beat. My experience of mergers and acquisitions has taught me that however robust your due diligence is, what you discover when you go into the acquired institution is always different from what you expect to find. The gap between expectation and reality will depend on how well you did your due diligence, and how cooperative the target company’s management team has been.

[Ajani Ibrahim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leaving the Tarmac tells the story of the Rise of Access Bank into the formidable institution the bank is today.

It tells the story of 2 young Nigerians who went out of their way to Buy a Bank. And go on to overcome myriads of Challenges in a bid to make their venture a Success.

The book also tells the story of Nigeria in the recent decades via the spectrum of the banking sector.

The style of writing is direct, gripping and Engaging. I loved it.

[Emeka Nwachukwu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshing and Enlightening

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The writing style made it so easy to read, also the fact that I was aware of some of these happenings (as an outsider hearing all kinds of rumours) also made it very compelling. I hope some more Nigerian players will be encouraged to write as well.

[Adedoyin Adesoye · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a beautiful read. Insightful book on how the banking system works in Nigeria. It is a story of a man who dared to bring his dreams to reality with grit, resilience, and diligence in play, he built a solid bank and I daresay one of the most respected African banks in the world. Inspiring, I must say.

[Uzzur Obuba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant!

It was interesting reading my first Nigerian business sucess story. For once a book has been written on the politics, principles and process of growing a business in Nigeria

[hameedat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written book taking the reader on a thrilling entrepreneurial journey

I recommend this book for every entrepreneur. It gives an insight into the Access bank growth story and has lessons that can be applied to any industry

[Josephine J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a well-written book... And insightful, too.

[Fikayo Akeredolu · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is well structured, but the narration is lacking. Felt like there was a more profound version of the story the author was not ready to tell.

[Davis Haguma]

A riveting journey of African entrepreneurship.

[Davidson Ajaegbu · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have context of how Nigeria is set up, you'd know that this is quite an audacious story of real life events.

My key takeaways, Be fearless and solid values is everything.

[Mbachi Thindwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

one word 'Chutzpah' describes the mindset of Aig and Herbert Wigwe . This a great, almost incredible account of how they birthed Access Bank.

[Amaru]

I first learnt of Aig from a YouTube video of his talk at Oxford on Harmonising public & private sector activity. A very riveting conversation and as a young African keen to set up an enterprise on the continent, I was thoroughly inspired.

The same rawness and realness were applied to this book. He is very honest and candid about what he had to do to set up Access Bank. The late-night meetings, the near-crash of the deal, his health challenges to make it all work, the successes. It was in there, in its truest of form. What a fantastic read!

To Aig,

If you get to read this, let it be known that you thoroughly inspired a young lad from Nairobi, Kenya. I cannot wait to say how much you story inspired me.

[David Adeleke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me some time to finish the book, but I thought this was a good peek into how the banking industry operates in Nigeria. Of course, a lot has changed since the book was published, but it’s still very relevant today. The writing was a bit weak though, but it’s expected from a banker, I guess.