Habila Malgwi
Habila Malgwi, is the Regional Head for
East and West Africa at Arton Capital, a global financial firm that
helps people gain second citizenship of countries of their choices
through various investment packages. He told Chineme Okafor, in this interview that Nigerians can legally access the world almost without entry visas. Excerpts:
Tell us about your firm?
Arton Capital is a global financial firm
which specialises in citizenship by investment program. We are a
trusted advisor to seven governments where we have successfully created
some of these
programs as a means of bringing in foreign direct
investment to those countries. At the moment, we have about 14 programs
in 14 different countries where we actually facilitate and help
individuals or families in obtaining citizenship through investment.
What is this concept all about?
I would actually say it has been there
for a while now. However, we have been able to revamp this whole
process. And we’re able to project it much better, especially in Africa.
The concept is such that we looked
around the world and realised that governments are in need of foreign
direct investments, economies are crashing, natural resources are also
going away. Now, we looked at the human part of it, not just the
government part of it, and we found out that a lot of people are having
issues with traveling – it could be for mobility reasons, it could be
for safety, it could be for education or for standard of living and
business opportunities.
And, we looked at the fact that there’s a
gap between the government needing money and also individuals wanting
those particular things that they need, and decided to implement this
program called the citizen by investment program where the government
can earn money through individuals’ investment and the individuals can
gain passports, and this eases the individuals’ stress of traveling
which reduces a whole lot of load for them. And also the government is
making money to do more infrastructure and create jobs.
Do the passports from this concept allow you all the rights of a citizen?
Absolutely. So, if today, you get a
passport from Cyprus, it gives you the same rights as a citizen of
Cyprus. It means you become a Cypriot, you have all the benefits and
every single facility that is being provided to citizens, and you are
also entitled to that.
How many governments and countries are you advising?
We are currently advising several
governments; we’re trusted advisor with seven governments. But then we
have the programme in 14 other countries. Now, what I’m saying is that
we have been able to implement this program with seven governments while
the 14 countries are total of where this programs have been laid in.
And we’ve been able to tap into an either where they’re probably
promoters or the agents.
Do you want to tell me some of these countries?
Yes, there is Cyprus, Malta, Portugal,
Bulgaria, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia,
Dominica, the EB five in the United States, and also the Cuban
immigration program. At the moment, we are also kicking off with
Montenegro, which is getting a lot of traction right now, we also have
the United Kingdom programme and also we’re looking at Moldova. Solomon
Islands might also come on board.
What about some A-list countries like in the EU?
Some of these countries do not provide
this, and what we do is for us, we look at the access. So, if these
countries are open and need this program, we’re happy to bring it in.
So, we always have to look at these things. We cannot just go in and do
programs in any country, we have to be able to access the country to be
able to see that we have more traction of people who want to be in those
jurisdiction, and also this countries are in need of this resources.
What is the typical process for this programme?
First of all, you need to have a minimum
annual income of $100,000 or above 100,000 Euros, depending on the
jurisdiction. But generally, this is what it entails. We just don’t
on-board clients just like that. We try as much as we can to go through a
very strict due diligence process. If you as a client, comes to us
today for a Malta passport. We take a data page of your passport and
your CV and run a background check on you. If you qualify or you pass
our compliance checks and process, then we on-board you as a client. It
doesn’t just stop there because by the time we put your file together,
and lodge it to the government, it takes them at least three months to
launch a due diligence on you as an individual. So, when that due
diligence report is done, if you actually pass that, then you get an
approval.
Now, the moment you get an approval that
is when the investment amount is due for you to pay to the government,
so, these are the processes.
Are you challenged by the fact that a lot of countries are closing their borders from foreigners?
We believe that the world is becoming a
global village and we believe that the few wealthy ones can open more
doors to the mass poor people. This is one of our beliefs and even in
the United Nations, it is written boldly that everyone has a right to
second citizenship. You have a right to a second nationality. Although
yes, we understand that for security reasons, borders are closing up,
but you should also remember that you’re not going in through the back
door, you’re going in through a legitimate way, through investing with
your resources. If today you go to the United States to buy a property,
it doesn’t mean that you are a resident of the United States but then
you have a property there. America will not close their borders to
investors. Every nation is looking for foreign investors to come in and
put their money, so if you can invest in that country then there is no
issue at all.
Do you encourage non-Nigerians
to take Nigerian citizenship in this context just as you encourage
Nigerians to take that of others?
You see it’s not about if we encourage
other people to take citizenship in Nigeria because we don’t have a
program in Nigeria to start with. Secondly, we look at the strength of
those passports – can the Nigerian passport take you to Schengen and
other European countries? The answer is no! So tell me how many people
would actually want to take a Nigerian passport?
However, Nigerians are well-travelled,
probably the highest travelled people in the world. Now they want to go
to Europe, Canada and other places, so, it is easier for Nigerians to
say we want to take citizenship in any country in Europe or in a
Caribbean country than for an European to want to take citizenship in
Nigeria because there are no more benefits if you look at it. So, even
if he takes the Nigerian passport, there is no much benefit because his
passport already is taking him to places America and Europe that a
Nigerian passport cannot take him. So, if he is taking a Nigerian
passport that is probably because he has some other interests in the
country. But we don’t have a program in Nigeria, so we don’t sell the
country as a product.
Again, how does the low value on Nigeria’s passport affect its citizens generally?
I think we’re losing out on a lot of
opportunities. Today, our passport can take us to maybe about 47 or 48
countries. We’re missing out on a whole lot because if little countries
in the Caribbean can have access to Schengen and Europe, they are
gaining a lot because their citizens have better opportunities for
business abroad while our citizens have less opportunity to run business
abroad. I would say it’s hurting our economy because there is there
just no way to sell Nigeria as a country using its passport. Well, there
are resources like oil and anyone coming to Nigeria is coming here
because they want to either take the oil or whatever, but not because of
the passport, and if the country can enhance the passport then I think
it’s going to be a good thing.
What should be done about this?
We have been able to more or less be
like consultants for a couple of countries where we stand like middleman
in making bilateral agreements with foreign ministries and our doors
are open, if they want us to come in as consultants to help them
increase the ranking of the passport, we can do.
How wide is Arton’s operations?
We’re the largest in the industry
worldwide, and I’ve spoken with a lot of people who says we are
professionals and credible. We actually have a little work that we’re
doing in Nigeria, we are getting people almost every single day sending
us inquiries on these programs. We’re working hard because we believe
Nigeria is one of the biggest markets in Africa, and so we’re working a
whole lot to see that we cover everyone, and we’re able to assist them.
The whole thing is for Nigerians, it is
not about relocation but access to the world. So for example, you have
someone who is worth over $200 million with his private jet, but still
gets rejected visa once in a while. That wastes his time from flying out
to get a business transaction done somewhere and for him, it is easier
for him to invest at $2 million euros in Cyprus, or he invest half a
million in the United States and he gets a passport that can take him to
Europe or anywhere for visa free.
Now, what I need also for people to
understand is that this is not about how many visa-free countries you go
to, but about your interest and where they lay. We have a tool called
the passport index tool where you can check the countries that you need
and how many has visa-free passports. With that, you will be shocked
that a country like Grenada has about maybe 120 countries or more and
can take you to China. So, these are some of the concepts we try to
educate people about it.
How many people have you been successful with so far?
In this region, we’ve been able to
assist over 20 families to accomplish this. And I tell you 20 because
the process is actually not just an easy process. You know, it takes a
whole lot. We have had a couple of rejections and our success rate I
will say is 100 per cent because the only reasons people are rejected is
if they are not sincere. If clients are not sincere, and something is
found out by the government, by the due diligence team, you get
rejected.
For us as a company being that we have
different stages of compliance check, we try to mitigate those risks of
you getting rejected.
So, we find out everything from day one.
And we’re always happy to reject clients as long as your records are
not clean, we’re not helping people to launder funds, and we try to make
this clear, and that is why we do what you call a full-blown source of
wealth check.
I always have this question about
politicians, and I tell people too that we don’t have problems with
politically-exposed people as long as they can prove their source of
wealth.
It is not a crime to be a politician, there are lots of politicians that have legal source of income.
It is not a crime to be a politician, there are lots of politicians that have legal source of income.
No comments :
Post a Comment