I don’t take a bank to heaven – Nigel Chanakira

Christian businessman Nigel Chanakira, the founder of Kingdom Bank, has defended his move to give up his 30 percent shareholding in the financial institution to Mauritius-based AfrAsia Holdings in a cash equity deal.

Now an executive director with Success Motivation International (SMI), a one-time United States-based leadership management institute that once rewarded him for being its best client, the BSc (Hon) Economics and MSc (Hon) Economics degrees holder from (University of Zimbabwe), after citing a parable of Jesus in Luke 1, said the bank was at the time not making much money and ‘Jesus Christ does not want you to do business without profit.’

He left the bank that he founded and was associated with for 19 years, citing non-performance by the institution as the reason for ceding his shares.

“I want money, and I want lots of it. Even if my bank was not selling, I sold it to get lots of money. $12.5 million was okay. However I did it to partner with the church in reaching out to lost souls. It rolled out 20 indigenous churches. I do not understand what the media implies when they say it did not work.

“My very first million, I gave it to God. I do not want a legacy I can’t take to heaven. I cannot take a bank to heaven, but I can take souls there instead. We built a church an reached to many sinners,” he told the business gathering Saturday in Courteney Room at Regency Fairmile in Gweru, numbering about 150.

"This coming Wednesday, they are paying me the remainder of my monies, and is that your idea of a failed partnership?"

Added Chanakira, who goes to Pastor Tom Deuschle’s Celebration Church: “Businessmen from the west sent people like David Livingstone to Africa with the gospel…likewise my pastor is the silent board member in all of my companies.”

The 2001 World Economic Forum global leader and, whose Kingdom Bank was in 2006 named as the Best Turnaround Zimbabwe Stock Exchange company, said it was a misconception that we need capital to create wealth when we have “spiritual capital which is more important than financial wealth”

He urged budding entrpreneurs to focus on one business area as opposed to being a jack of all trades and master of none. “Choose just one area where you want to be God-like and dominate, vamwe tinowanza, you cannot do everything.

Speaking at the dinner, dubbed Wealth Masters and organized by his Beam of Hope International Churches, Bishop Hosiah Tagara suggested that a poor man could not propagate the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“It requires money to preach the gospel across nations. We are still in Gweru but are busy working on projects in South Africa, South Sudan and elsewhere, and with no money, that cannot be easy.’

According to his website beamofhope.net, Bishop Hosiah Tagara “has been mandated by the Lord to raise a force of Kingdom entrepreneurs and release marketplace apostles with a magnetic anointing to draw resources,golden connections and create wealth for generations and for the Kingdom.”

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