Jane Kimemia: The Amazon Promoting Long-term Savings through Investment Immigration

Ms. Jane Kimemia is the Managing Director/CEO of Optiva Capital Partners Limited, a leading Investment Immigration Wealth Management Company committed to support Nigerians save on global investment opportunities. SUNDAY EHIGIATOR writes on Kimemia’s thought-provoking leadership nuggets for women, and the company’s mission to optimise wealth for clients

A successful professional and entrepreneur who has devoted a lot of time and energy into getting where she is today, Jane Kimemia shone like a million stars at the just concluded Annual Conference of Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ), which held in Lagos.

Her remarkably inspiring speech, anchored on urging women who aspire to make enduring marks in their career progression to learn to move from “success to significance” received a thunderous ovation from the fully-packed audience at the Eko Hotels venue of the event.

For starters, Ms. Kimemia, who has been in the financial services sector for over two decades had worked for two international banks, Barclays Bank and Standard Chartered, for a combined 20 years, rising up to Executive Director at Standard Chartered Bank in charge of wealth management services, foreign exchange and banc assurance services for a whole region.

An authentic business leader who has shown remarkable consistency and courage through her character and holding onto the inner values and qualities that define her, Kimemia’s message as a speaker at the WIMBIZ event truly resonated with the audience.

Drawing from her personal experience of transiting from over two decades of successful career in financial services to enterprise, she stated that one of the challenges is defining the what.

 According to her, every woman at any transition stage should define “what are you going to be doing as you talk about transition, what are you known for? What I have found true is to stay true to who you are, stay on your lane, find your area of service that is aligned to who you are, you don’t have to re-define yourself.”

Citing the growth trajectory of Optiva Capital Partners, Ms. Kimemia stated that “luckily for Optiva, I remember sitting together with the chairman in 2017, and the company was just about 15 people, and we drew on some manila paper, and the ambition was to get to 45 staff members, and that sounded so huge. But our chairman is a visionary, soon it was 200, soon it was 1000, and that’s who we are now, with over 17 branches, and 20 in the next few months.”

In her words, “be convinced about your what, because it keeps you motivated.”

Another factor she advised women on in their career journey is to “stay positive, look at the possibilities and define them, and be very clear about that, and also be realistic. You need to have the courage, the resilience, you need to stay the course, you need to have that reason that keeps you going because times are going to be tough. You need to be real that it is not going to be one success to another.”

Kimemia therefore offered some nuggets on how to always stay the course. According to her, “prepare, be so convinced about your course, be passionate about your course, your area of service that you will do it for free. Find the passion and the energy that is aligned to who you are.”

She also admonished her fellow women in management and business, at the well-attended two-day event to “prepare to be lonely. Time will come that you don’t belong to where you are coming from and you don’t belong to where you are headed to, you are somewhere in between. Try and define your journey because if you are not careful you can live your life facing the back saying I used to be this. Many people are held back by the past, the glory of the yesteryears. You have to make the distinction with your past which serves you but be careful to make the distinction. What got you here is important but it may not necessarily get you there.”

As CEO of a leading investment immigration wealth management company, Kimemia is also drawing attention on the need for investment savvy Nigerians to save long-term through investment immigration with a commitment “to help Nigerians to save on what they would have been spending on through our bespoke investment immigration services.” 

According to her, through the Citizenship By Immigration (CBI) programme, clients receive tremendous value and savings on the scarce foreign exchange that comes back in developing Nigeria. “We are looking at value, costs, and value across generations as well. So you get second citizenship it doesn’t stop you from continuing your business, but it gives you global access. So it is not a spend but an investment and it is savings.”

Shedding more light on the savings and value inherent in the investment immigration services, Kimemia stated that with “children’s education for example, investment immigration becomes a vehicle for our clients to protect, to grow, to enhance, to diversify their wealth. 

“For somebody looking for permanent residency or to invest in a programme in Canada, their children’s education say in University of Toronto, international students for a Bachelors programme will be paying about $60,000 annually, but as permanent residents they will be paying just $6,000 per annum.”

To further buttress the savings on investment through investment immigration, the Optiva Capital Partners CEO told the story of one of their clients. According to her, “one of our clients had arranged for their daughter to go and study medicine in the United States of America, but they have a Grenada passport, but they looked at the options and realised that Grenada has one of the finest schools of medicine, Saint George’s University, and their daughter will go to University as a resident of Grenada, as a citizen of Grenada, and will pay $20,000 per annum as against $100,000 per annum. So, the benefits are immense.” 

Ms. Kimemia also cited another investment immigration programme, EB5 programme, which offers steady return on investment. According to her, “with the EB5 programme, there is return of five per cent because client will invest $800,000. That is guaranteed return for five years, but also remember that their end goal is citizenship, green card, leading up to citizenship, but in the meantime there is a return on investment because every year they will be earning about $40,000 from that particular investment. 

Very importantly they have invested in a currency that safeguards the value over time. And lastly think about the return on investment across generations because once you obtain citizenship or permanent residency, it is for you and generations to come, which translates to access to world class education opportunities, trade opportunities.”

She therefore stated that “with investment immigration also, clients optimise their spending. If you are a Canadian permanent resident, you have an opportunity to optimise your spending. In education for instance, the fees you will be paying as an international student is like times twelve what you will be paying as a Canadian resident so that is huge saving and a return on investment.” 

With regard to return on investment, she restated that “when it comes to investment immigration, you are looking at return on investments not only in financial terms, it is in both direct and indirect returns. Some of our clients are traders, people in business, executives, they are high net worth individuals.

” Global access is very important to them so second citizenship or permanent residency in a number of jurisdictions is important to them which means that they have got the world of opportunities because there are so many people who have lost opportunities to do business because they were carrying one passport, they have to go through long visa queues to get access to some markets. 

“So when you think of return on investment on immigration investment, first of all is that global access and that gives them access to business that they ordinarily would not have accessed.” 

Optiva Capital Partners CEO also explained that “If you have Canadian permanent residency, which is a federal start-up programme, it enables our clients to invest in start-ups which are legislated and vetted programmes by the Canadian government such that our clients have access to invest in jurisdictions that they would not have had access to.” 

A woman of poise and eloquence who puts thought to every word, Ms. Jane Kimemia is very inspirational. And as she admonished the women gathered at the WIMBIZ event, she pushes past her comfort zone because she is pursuing a cause she believes in, a cause that enables her offer value, savings, and boundless opportunities to Nigerians and indeed, Africans.