Access Bank chief executive snaps up £15m Hampstead mansion
The boss of Nigeria’s biggest bank has snapped up a £15m mansion in one of London’s most prestigious postcodes, Morning Wire can reveal.
Roosevelt Ogbonna, who has been the chief executive of Lagos-based Access Bank since May 2022, has acquired a luxury pad on The Bishops Avenue in Hampstead.
The transaction for the property was completed in August, Land Registry documents show, while Access Bank’s UK arm has also issued a mortgage in connection with the site.
The move adds Ogbonna to a host of celebrities and business magnates who have moved to the street nicknamed ‘Billionaire’s Row’, including the likes of singers Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, Indian industrialist Lakshmi Mittal and the Sultan of Brunei.
According to a property marketplace listing, the huge eight-bedroom home features a swimming pool, a spa, a cinema, nine bathrooms and a lift to all floors, along with a carefully landscaped garden.
The purchase is one of only two property deals completed on the glamorous street amid signs of a slowdown in the luxury market. The £15m transaction was a discount from the original £17m price tag when the house was listed for sale in 2022, while another home on the street sold for £8.8m in June.
Access Bank is the largest bank in Nigeria by assets, and the largest in Africa by number of customers with more than 50m.
Ogbonna, who has worked at Access Bank since 2022, is described by the bank as “a thoroughbred and consummate professional” with “a very rich professional cum academic background.”
Last month Ogbonna resigned as a non-executive director of the bank’s parent company, Access Holdings, but remains managing director and chief financial officer of Access Bank.
The properties on The Bishops Avenue are together thought to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds, though several have become derelict and have remained unoccupied for decades.