Nicholas Vingirai (NV), often hailed as the father of Zimbabwe’s banking sector, saw his life’s work dismantled in an instant.
What began as a 2004 day trip to Johannesburg transformed into an eight-year exile after he was accused of externalisation and theft.
While his empire, Intermarket Financial Holdings, was seized by the state, Vingirai faced near-destitution abroad, at one point surviving on McDonald's "fold-overs".
In this intimate In Conversation with Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube (TN), Vingirai reflects on the decimation of indigenous banking, his spiritual survival, and the profound loss to Zimbabwe’s economy when its "home-grown timber" was uprooted.
TN: Greetings. Welcome to part two of our conversation with Nick VingIrai – a serial entrepreneur, a venture capitalist, and a man that I call the father of Zimbabwe's banking sector. You built Intermarket Financial Holdings. Then 2004, the banking crisis – and you are forced to go into exile. Did you see this coming in any way?
NV: I did. But probably, I was not forced into exile as leaving the country because of anything. I left on a day trip to Johannesburg on a business trip to meet a brother, one of our colleagues whose businesses were funded by Intermarket.
The board insisted that I go to Joburg to meet with him and discuss and restructure the funding arrangement. So I left literally as I am – I didn't even carry a bag or briefcase. I just left with the 7 o’clock flight to come back with the 7pm flight.
That's how I left the country, and I couldn't come back until seven, eight years — eight years. It didn't make sense to me. Initially, I thought they wanted me to wait because they were coming there for a meeting.
But it turned out that the day I left, I was supposed to be picked up.
When the police came to the office to look for me and discovered that I had left that morning on an early flight, the story then was that I had run away.
Meanwhile, I didn't even know what was going on. But God was there.
Not long before I left, I had seen a vision, a dream, and seen something happening. I brushed it aside. It only made sense when I was out.
Now I couldn't return. One thing led to another – before I knew it, I was in the papers. I was supposedly charged with externalisation. Eleven counts of theft.
TN: Describe how it felt, having these accusations levelled against you.
NV: It's one of the most devastating things that can happen to anybody – to be falsely accused. If you are not spiritual, you might not survive it.
But I discovered later that the reason I was able to survive all the onslaught was because in Shona, derere – it didn't go into my soul at all.
It didn't touch me. I was actually wondering what was going on, because what was being said did not exist. And because it didn't exist, it had no impact on me.
When Christ says, "The prince of this world comes to me, but there is nothing of him in me" – that scripture.
There was nothing of whatever they were saying to mein me. So it didn't affect me.
My concern was more about my family, because they would not probably have been as strong as I am spiritually. But because of my spiritual covering, they survived.
TN: At that time, there was a crusade against errant bankers. It was a whole group of you caught in this thing.
As you reflect on this season – the decimation of indigenous banking in this country, something we were proud of, that unlike South Africa and other countries, Zimbabwe had grown its own timber, as it were, of black bankers of repute — what goes through your mind?
NV: I take that period, that time, and all those people, the bankers, as what should have been the anchor for the economy.
I know very well that had the indigenous banking sector not been decimated, we would be talking about something talking something else in thisof this economy.
The type of people involved at that time were serious bankers – professional, ethical, and they loved their country.
I for one was not driven by making money for myself. I enjoyed impacting the youth and funding things.
Many people of my generation tell stories of how indigenous banks helped them get into business. Imagine those stories multiplied, allowing Zimbabwean professionals to get into business – that becomes the bedrock of the economy.
But that was not to be. We were the bridge generation – people connected to the past who could draw from the past into the future.
We had serious training and exposure. A lot of my fellow bankers had international experience – people who had been with the IFC, the Commonwealth secretariat, the AfDB, the African Development Bank, Julius Makoni, James Mushore, Douglas Munetsi, Eugene Lambo, Jeff Zimbele, Simba Makoni. I think our country lost big time. The country lost, and you lost.
TN: While you were in exile, they took Intermarket Financial Holdings. You are in exile, and the RBZ takes 51% of Intermarket Financial Holdings and sells it to ZB Financial Holdings for $5 billion.
This is your life's entire work. What goes through your mind as this is happening and you're outside the country?
NV: I could not defend what was going on because it didn't make sense. The blanket decimation of financial institutions – you do that, you are not just destroying the people you think you are destroying; you are destroying the economy. No question about that.
TN: What's going through your mind? You are outside the country. This must have been not easy for you.
NV: It was not easy, particularly because I had nothing out there. I'm being accused of externalisation, now I am external, and there's nothing for me.
I didn't have money for food. I ate something called a fold-over — a McDonald's thing. I would buy it around three so that it was my lunch and my dinner. 19 rand, 10 cents at the time. That's all I had.