Zaid Al Hindi is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Imperial Citizenship, a leading advisory company specialising in investor programmes to obtain residency and also citizenship in several nations worldwide. Hindi was recently in the country to open the Nigerian office of the company in Ikoyi, Lagos. In this interview with ONYEDIKA AGBEDO and ENIOLA DANIEL, he speaks on the company’s services, highlighting why they decided to invest in the Nigerian economy. According to him, Nigeria is a thriving economy that a lot of investors can actually put in their money if they understand the market a bit more. Excerpts:
Briefly tell us about your company and its citizenship by investment initiative.
We are specialised in helping our clients obtain residency and citizenship by investment. The opportunity is in more than 40 countries in the Caribbean and South Pacific, Europe and Middle East.
There are two ways to obtain the citizenship of the five countries on the Caribbean Island. One is through direct contribution to the national development of the country, which includes infrastructure and school for the citizens of the country.
The second option is real estate investment. This is to help improve tourism. This programme is designed to bring foreign investment into their countries, to help the citizens of the country. Investing in the tourism sector will create more jobs; help the economy of these countries.
What level of investment does one have to make to be considered for the citizenship of those countries?
The minimum investment is $100,000 and it can go up to €5 million depending on the programme someone is looking to apply for. We are not only active on the Caribbean Island; we are active in Europe as well. The most interesting programme in Europe is the citizenship by investment in Malta. Malta has a very strong passport because you become an European citizen and being a member of the European Union, you can live in any of the 28 European countries, including Switzerland.
What do you do to facilitate your clients’ application for citizenship?
For us, it’s important to know the background of our clients; it’s important to the countries to ensure strict compliance. So, we need to know that our client is eligible to apply for this programme. The first requirement is that they must not have a rejection to any visa-free countries. The second is that we look at criminal records; we also need proof of the source of the fund to know where the income is generated. I can guarantee that those who looted cannot invest in these countries just to get a safe haven as they need to prove that they have a business and they generated the income to pay for the investment. Lots of background and lots of investigation go into the processes.
Why are African countries not in the list of countries that offer a second citizenship your organisation facilitates?
What we look at is the strength of the passport. Nigerians are interested in second citizenship for mobility aspects. The power of the passport of Nigeria allows you to travel to maybe 46 countries, compared to when you invest in these islands or the European countries, which gives you more access to different countries. So, a lot of the Nigerian clients do this for mobility aspects; so they are able to conduct their businesses without the need to apply for visas. Processing times of a visa sometimes can take between two weeks and three months and you have to hold your passport within a certain embassy. A lot of these big businessmen don’t have the time to wait, especially if they have three conferences in different countries. And in order for them to get the visas, it takes five to six months. So, this is just an easy way for them to conduct their businesses without any restrictions. And most of them don’t decide to relocate; they decide to stay in Nigeria to conduct their businesses and this allows them to become mobile.
Don’t you think this is an avenue to encourage capital flight from Africa, particularly Nigeria?
I think of it as the opposite to be honest. It does give them the mobility aspect to travel but a lot of them tend to stay here because they are not required to relocate to any of the countries that we work with.
I see this differently because this gives empowerment to the citizens of Nigeria to become competitive abroad. You need to be able to move; you need to be able to go to different countries to source new products for the economy. So, they might be spending $100,000 on a citizenship which you might think it’s going outside of the country but what is he bringing back with the new power that he has? He’s able to go and source products from China; to sign contracts in Germany; to bring those manufacturing plants back. It gives him exposure that he might have never had before. If you are only limited to one country and you don’t have the ability to travel to multiple countries, this might restrict your business. So, we can look at it in different ways.
Real estate also takes a lot of money outside Nigeria; some people buy real estate in Dubai, Greece and Spain. Are we limiting these people to what they can have outside? So, that’s the thing. I think a lot of people need to look at that specific angle because I think that it actually brings more opportunity. None of the clients that we approach are interested in moving to other countries.
My dad relocated everyone in the family to Canada in 1995; so he left his business in Syria. Syria did not get any of the financial means that we actually spent in Canada. But this gave me the power to conduct more business, to offer more jobs, the opportunity to travel, to expand, to open my brain and my thought process. So, I think it adds a lot of value.
So, how do your services rub off on the Nigerian economy?
We’ve seen a lot of traction. A lot of people are interested in second citizenship. A lot of people are also interested in immigration, but that’s not our main focus at Imperial Citizenship.
How does Nigeria as a country gain from your services and are you also selling the country to the outside world?
I think that’s a product. We recently opened our doors in Nigeria. I have been coming personally since 2014. And I fell in love with Nigeria as a country. We are definitely looking to help bring more foreign investors to projects that we are looking to fund here. There are a lot of projects that need investment in the country. But this is a different domain completely. Nigeria does not have a citizenship by investment programme.
We also help with company formation in multiple countries. And we are looking to help foreign companies set up their bases in Nigeria because I feel that this will improve the economy. And I feel that it’s a thriving economy that a lot of investors can actually put in their money if they understand the market a bit more. And we are looking to bridge that gap.
What’s your success story? How many of your Nigerian clients have you successfully assisted?
I have had hundreds of applications in Nigeria alone but that doesn’t mean that that number of citizenship have been granted, because some families have five, six or 10 members. So, it really depends on the family structure; but we have handed over hundreds of citizenship, passports and citizenship certificates to citizens of Nigeria.
You recently opened an office in Lagos; what does that signify?
It signifies the unity we want to have with Nigeria. We want to have a very big base here; so it is actually our African headquarters that have been opened right here in Ikoyi, Lagos. Equally, this signifies great success for my team members to actually come here, be able to meet with the people of Nigeria, see how we can offer them our services and see how we can help them achieve their goals also. We do success planning where we sit with our clients, understand their requirements and what they are looking to achieve. We don’t just promote one or two programmes. That’s why we work with all of the countries to make sure that we give what the client is actually looking to achieve. Some of them just want to have a residency in Europe; they are not interested in having a second citizenship, so we help them with that. Some of them are interested in just expanding their businesses globally; we help them to set up companies in different countries that will allow them to expand their businesses. This is why we are opening our office in Nigeria.
Why did you decide to invest in Nigeria?
I believe this is the land of opportunity. I think there’s a lot of opportunity in Nigeria and that’s why I am personally investing here. I like to calculate everything and I am in Nigeria for that reason, because I do believe it’s the land of opportunity. I want to see this country thrive. I want to be able to bring a lot of foreign investments here and help the country as much as I can. And there’s a lot of stuff that you will be seeing from me and my company, because we are here; we are eating from Nigeria. We thank God for this economy and we will always give back and that’s something that we pride ourselves in. We will be doing more charity events; we will be helping the citizens of Nigeria. Down the line, we want to create an academy for training of sales people so they can have the opportunity to be able to speak to whoever they want.
What do you love most about Nigeria?
The people of Nigeria! Every time I go to a meeting, I see that everyone is very serious at the beginning; everyone’s trying to understand what is happening down the line. Once Nigerian people open up, I think they are honestly the best people; they smile, they love to have fun. They love to enjoy and they just love a good time.
Going forward, what should Nigerians expect from Imperial Citizenship?
A dedicated team that’s on the ground to assist them understand their concerns and give them honest answers. This is a life-changing matter. It’s not something they can make a decision within a day. It’s something that we will guide them over months. Sometimes we work with clients just to understand what they are looking to achieve, come up with a solution, which we will present to them, and then it’s up to them to make that decision. But we give all of the information available and then they will decide if it’s something they would like to proceed with or not. For me, it’s all about relationships. I believe in a long-term relationship. We’re not interested in just working with a client one time; we are interested in becoming their family advisors.
