Nigel Chanakira
By Tapfuma Machakaire
Matthew 6 verse 33. “Seek ye the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”
“This is the Bible verse that inspired Nigel Chanakira a devote Christian from the Celebration Ministries church, to become a business mogul, one of the first Africans to own and run a bank. Chanakira believes that Africa is too rich to be poor and he wants to be one of the world changers.
Nigel Muranganwa Kudzai Chanakira was born on 11 July 1966, and was raised in Harare’s Highfields suburb in an entrepreneurial family. His father and uncle used to operate a public transport company, Modern Express, later diversifying into retail shops. Young Nigel would work in the shops during holidays. He attended Martindale Catholic Primary School, St John’s High and Churchill Boys High.
On completion of high school, Nigel enrolled at the University of Zimbabwe for a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics. He secured a job as an economist with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ). Chanakira worked for finance house Bard from 1989 to 1994 where he learnt to trade government bonds while fighting against the notion that blacks could not be investment analysts.
While in high school, Chanakira, who was among the first group of black children to go to former whites-only schools, referred to as group A schools, had been very vocal about racism, which at that time was rife. At the age of 26 Nigel made a bold offer to buy and lead Bard which unfortunately was rejected.
In 1986, Nigel was picked by the World Economic Forum as a future global leader and went to Davos Switzerland for a global business forum.
The opportunity opened his world to contacts that he could never have met, including Bill Gates. The Davos journey shifted his mindset forever and he began to appreciate the need to sponsor and send more Zimbabweans to benefit from such platforms.
Driven by his passion for economics, in 1994 Chanakira, with four partners, founded Kingdom Bank. Five years later, Chanakira merged the bank with The Discount Company of Zimbabwe in 1999 to secure its listing on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. The new company then acquired a stake in a foreign exchange bureau.
In 2007 Kingdom Financial Holdings merged with Meikles Hotel led by John Moxon to form Kingdom Meikles Africa. This was after Meikles had been pondering over the idea of getting into a banking deal. The merger made big news as it raised the prospects of a listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
Chanakira stepped down from his post of CEO in October 2009 following a dispute with some shareholders. He then de-merged Kingdom from the Kingdom Meikles group in 2011 and formed Kingdom Financial Holdings Limited. In 2013 Chanakira sold his 30 percent shareholding in AfrAsia Kingdom Zimbabwe and has exited the financial institution to pursue other interests.
As the Chairperson of Success Motivation Institute, he is pursuing his earlier calling to mould aspiring entrepreneurs. The institute aims to develop confident, effective leaders that can compete on local and international stages.
Nigel argues that “God gave us a brain and that is more than sufficient for us to make it”. Despite the unfavourable macroeconomic conditions in the country, he urges the young people to go for it, and rubbishes the notion that money is a major hindrance to starting a business. “If I had to do it over again, I would hustle my way, network my way and work my way to starting a bank even in a country like ours.”
In 2013 as part of his philanthropic work Nigel found himself in a tight spot when he was mobbed by a group of pillow fighters on a Saturday. The business leader was taking part in the World’s Biggest Pillow Fight Record Attempt, a charity event hosted by the With Love Foundation to raise funds to expand their weekly soup kitchen in Mbare, Harare.
Chanakira fought back aggressively, sending his attackers running for dear life. The idea was for Zimbabwe to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records by breaking the world record for the biggest pillow fight ever, standing at 3,706 pillow fighters, set in the UK. Unfortunately only 500 pillow fighters turned up. Among his outstanding achievements are the more than 17 business awards he received while at Kingdom. These include being twice voted the Top Company on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) (in 2001 and 2007), Best Turnaround ZSE Company (in 2006), Director of the Year Award by the Institute of Directors of Zimbabwe (2007) among others. Nigel is married to Caroline and they have three sons namely Panashe, Tadiwa, and Ponayi and one daughter, Mazvita.
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