Founder and Executive Chairman of Fundvine holdings, President of Dr. Enyinna kasarachi Foundation; A Public Policy Management, Capital Market, Corporate Governance, Trade and Investment Expert; Politician and Philanthropist.
“Trading is in my DNA, at 12 I was already assisting and managing my mother’s trading business”- Dr Kasarachi
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Born in 1970s in Ukwa West local government area of Abia state, Dr. Michael Enyinna began his business journey at 12, assisting and managing his mother’s small trading business, to becoming founder and chief executive of a multi-million naira international finance and investment company.
“I grew up in village where we did not really understand much about career prospect; my mother was a village trader and my father a railway worker. I was assisting my mother in the trading business. Helping in mother’s business gave me exposure and traveling experience, as I was going from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, Enugu to other parts of the country. In my first JAMB examination, I applied to become a petrochemical engineer because I had an uncle who was a chief executive of an oil/gas Company and he was very rich. I wanted to be rich too, but couldn’t scale through in the examination.
“My passion has been in business, my DNA is wired on trading, and so at age 12, I already started doing business, making small small money. My mother left her business for me to manage before I move to Lagos in 1996/97. At a time, I had a pharmaceutical shop in Ariaria and cemetery market in Aba between 1995/96 where we bought goods from Lagos, Onitsha and distribute to pharmaceutical shops in Aba. When I came to Lagos in 1996, was introduced into international trade by my uncle who has been into international trading; dealing in toiletries and others. I was doing managerial duty, ensuring goods imported from Germany are cleared and distributed, raised Performa invoice, liaise with banks, etc. We did that till around 2000, during Obasanjo’s regime as President, when we had some setbacks because there was a ban on importation by the government; we lose a lot, and the hardship of that time moved me into financial management services. I had a friend at that time that was doing his NYSC, who introduced me into financial services business, and so I began to have interest, did some little savings like 100-200k, and started investing in the capital market. I had to start learning about the market since I didn’t know much about it, coming from a trading background. I started investing in 1999, when GTB did public offer of about N5.59k in shares. I didn’t go to school to study investment or stock market; I wasn’t a chattered stock-broker, so I started reading books. And, in 2004, with the experience I had and contacts, I felt it was necessary to have operating license, so I bided for one, and that’s how Fundvine came on board.”
Dr. Enyinna joined British American Tobbaco in 2001, where he worked as business development executive before joining Adeco Finance Limited in 2004 where he worked as the head Fixed income investment.
He left the organization in March 2008 the same year he launched Fundvine Limited where he acts as the MD/CEO.
The company has grown over the years with many subsidiaries in United Kingdom, South Africa and Ivory-Coast. Today, Fundvine Group is a consortium of company registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in 2008 and has Fundvine Capital and Securities Limited; Fundvine Berkshire Asset Management Ltd; Fundvine Foods; Fundvine Properties Limited, Onetop Financial Services Ltd as its subsidiaries.
Dr. Enyinna does not just have profound knowledge of investment banking and capital market operations having been in the sector in the last 20 years, he is a dominant player in the two markets with his involvement in incredible volume deals from time to time.
He admirably directs the affairs of the Company bringing his wealth of experience to the table from time to time. He is also a big player with local and overseas trading companies dealing in imports and exports of foods and other consumables within Europe and Africa.
He has Bachelor of Science from the University of Winneba, Ghana, MSc from University of Salford. He also has Honorary Causa Doctor of Business Administration in Entrepreneurship Development from the Common Wealth University, Belize.
He is a fellow of institute of project management of Nigeria, Honorary fellow of Institute of information management, a fellow institute of Directors IoD, also a Fellow of institute of management consultant of Nigeria. Dr. Enyinna have attended several trainings both local and international, these include Hedge Fund Academy.
Dr. Enyinna has been a recipient of several Local and international awards bestowed on him and his organization by many prestigious institutions in recognition of his hard work, deep sense of corporate social responsibilities, meritorious service and philanthropic gestures. Some of the Awards are: United Nations peace keeping award Ambassador 2008 Best young entrepreneur award. African investors (South Africa) 2010, Award from Nigeria Officers Men of ATD in recognition of outstanding support and contribution to ATD 2016 Pillar of exemplary leadership award by Leadership and Role Model Foundation of Nigeria March 2017.
“We started with two or three staff, but today we have over fifty staff working full-time in our different subsidiaries and branches. It began as an SME providing small financial management services like helping people to buy shares from the capital market, and has grown to a multi-million naira business. We are hoping to go into hospitality services and Agriculture soonest.
“It’s not an easy journey, but as a principle, I believe for you to stay in business you must build good relationship with people; keep to your word and bargain. So, my business principle is: Build good relationship, be transparent and trustworthy. Don’t short-cut people; give people what belongs to them.
“Today, I have BSc, MSc and PhD in finance. It doesn’t take much to acquire this knowledge, it’s just focus. I struggled to get admission at a time but when I couldn’t, I dropped it, focus on other things and then return and acquire my education.
“Nigeria, Africa is a land of opportunity, most people see problem but we see opportunities. Today I have business in different parts of Africa, so I believe what you see matters. I have had failures and challenges in the business world but it’s all about taking positive risk, explore every opportunities.
“Do I have regrets? Have we taken wrong decisions in our business journey? The answer is Yes. Even today we still make mistakes in our decisions; it’s been a journey with challenges and regrets but you keep moving on. Let me give you an instance; two years ago, we just thought of entering into proper banking business, as a full-fledged bank, but we didn’t have up to 12billion to go into that, so somebody suggested we can acquire a small bank like microfinance, so we decided to acquire a license to operate as a microfinance bank, but just yesterday, I read in papers, that our license has been revoked by the CBN. What’s the reason? Redundancy. While we were busy here planning and preparing, maintaining correspondence with CBN on our plans on when to start full operation, only to wake up and hear that our license has been revoked. So what do we do? We had to go back to the drawing board and come up with something, and move forward. So, there are lots of challenges, failures here and there. You see operating business in Nigeria is not easy, it’s costly. That’s why I don’t blame most people, our political elites who don’t want to invest in Nigeria; so many challenges, even the work attitude and disposition of employees here, sometimes is disheartening. Today, young people believe in quick business, working smarter, which is not bad, but some of us were groomed in work work work, I work for 18hours every day, but there are so many young people who only work for 3hours and are making millions, flying private jet, I don’t envy them, I feel this is our own fate, we work more, to get what we want.”
Dr. Michael is an astute and suave politician, who continually promotes the interest of his people and constituency, Ukwa Federal Constituency of Abia State. He is interested in delivering the dividends of Democracy and ensures a better standard of living for his people, with improved infrastructural development.
On 10th May, 2022, Dr Kasarachi picked the nomination and expression of interest forms under the All Progressives Congress (APC), to contest for the position of Senator (Abia South Senatorial District). He left the ruling APC, following crisis in the state organ of the party and join the Young Progressive Party, YPP, where he was nominated as the vice Presidential candidate of the Party.
“Most of us who are young believe that the current people in leadership need to be change. If you travel to other places like Dubai which I do go most of the time or even our African countries, even Ghana here, you may believe that we are not doing well as a nation. And if you were born 40years ago, you will realize that the same people that were there in leadership are still here now. If you were there in 1984, you see and hear Buhari, today you still see and hear Buhari. Unfortunately, we young people don’t have resources like them to contest against them. But we need people at leadership who understand the time, the old people can be at playing advisory role; we need young people who know what’s trending and can fit into the global society, because the world is fast moving and we need to move along. I have been to morocco recently, you realize the citizens there dont think of leaving their country, or relocating to the Western world because their leadership provides what they need. We hope the new leadership of Nigeria would give us the hope we need.
“I strongly believe Tinubu would provide leadership that Nigeria yearns for considering his antecedent as a governor in Lagos. I want Nigeria to have confidence in him, believe in his leadership no matter the party lines. We may not agree with each other but we must join hands to build the country. Today, he is the father, and it doesn’t matter whether we all agree with him or voted him, he must provide leadership as father of the nation.
Election in Nigeria is always a scene where some people agree and some don’t, but when you come onboard, as an elected leader, you must give people confidence, and let people see what you have within your first hundred days in office.
“I don’t have anything against Asiwaju, I am praying for him. Let me tell you, you hardly see people with the kind of heart of Tinubu, who has picked people and empowered them, promote them, and they can today give credit for their success to Tinubu. Can you pick someone with such heart in the East and tell me, someone who has empowered people outside their family members?
“Coming to Abia Politics and especially the emergence of Alex Otti as governor, let me begin by saying that, I have been in politics since 2013. In 2014 I was invited by Alex, he offered me ticket to run in APGA then, I was in PDP then, my friend took me to him, I declined because I couldn’t have taken the offer since my friend was also interested in the same election.
“And in the just concluded election, I wanted to contest for governor in APC; Alex Otti was with us then in APC, but because there are lots of factions in APC in Abia state, which makes the party weak, Alex decided to look elsewhere to pursue his ambition. APC Abia is not united and there is no way APC Abia can win election even tomorrow because there are people in the state who believe the party belongs to them, so they make it a personal property.
“And you know, in this election, the focus of southeast was labour party. So whether Alex campaigned or not, but with Peter Obi movement, which directed southeast attention to labour party, he was bound to win. The mindset in southeast was set, in the polling unit, all what people were looking for is labour party, careless of who was contesting.
“I believe Alex will do well; he did well as a banker, and I am sure he will drive development in Abia state to next level. For me Alex is not new in Abia politics, he is already known, he has won election, declared winner and was upturn, but he is very popular. And you know, in democracy, popular candidates take it at the end of the day. Even my own candidate in YPP did well, but you can’t take it from Alex the fact that he was and is popular in Abia politics.
“Politics or election is a question of number, whether you are young or old, it’s a test of popularity, for instance, what Peter obi has done in the past 7-8months, no one has ever done it in the history of Nigerian politics, from the Ahmadu Bello, Awolowo, Azikiwe to the contemporary politicians, no one has ever gotten to that level of acceptance by young people. The level of acceptance by young people was unprecedented. But the question is was he totally accepted everywhere in the country? That’s what I don’t know, and what about the ruling APC, did they have wider spread? You know the answer. As a party in power for the past eight years, with the level of hunger in the land, you know the politicians and party that have resources will certainly influence voters.
“For me, right now, wherever God directs me, that’s where I will go. As you can see, I am back to my business fully. I am still praying for directions. Everything that happens to a man is divinely willed by God. What I wish may not really matters, but what God directs me to do is paramount. I was just sitting down like this and they called me to become Vice Presidential candidate of YPP, I didn’t plan for it.
“For now, I want to see the direction the country and leadership is going, I may decide not to be involved in politics again, but if the current leadership is in the right direction and I am called to serve, why not? It’s all about service to the nation, it doesn’t matter political party affiliation.
As my final word, I want to tell Nigerians to keep hope alive. Believe in yourself and believe in our Nation.”
Dr. Enyinna is married and blessed with a boy and girl, who are currently in secondary school.
-Compiled by ANIETIE UDOBIT, Managing Editor UNITY TIMES