Mr. Kingsley Unah is a chartered accountant, a certified anti-money laundering specialist and an MBA from Lagos Business School. He has 20+ years’ experience in risk management, fraud management, AML, and financial reporting compliance across law enforcement, telecommunications, and banking; delivering assurance to businesses to mitigate compliance, operational and fraud risks through process and system reviews and control implementation. Kingsley was Financial Controller/ Director of Financial Reporting in Airtel Nigeria before emigrating to Canada. He is currently an Associate Director in Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Toronto.

This interview was conducted in February 2023. Among other things, Kingsley spoke about how country risk contributes to motivating middle class Nigerians to emigrate; how his capacity to handle discrimination in Canada is strengthened by the resilience built while in Nigeria from coping with discrimination against minority groups; the precarious status of being middle class, even with a “good job”; the opportunity structure, the size of the Nigerian, Canadian, and US economies, and the importance of hard work. But Kingsley is in a marketable profession, so, he is able to make quick adjustments in his immigrant journey. Other immigrants who don’t have marketable skills might struggle more. Altogether, is it worth it, to leave a comfortable job in Nigeria, starting from scratch in Canada? Listen to Kingsley’s assessment.