ORLANDO, Fla. – This week on “Black Men Sundays,” it’s a throwback to host Corie Murray’s conversation with Anthony Simmons, president and CEO of Nemiro International Corporation and two other Caribbean-based companies that use Nemiro’s platforms for mobile banking and financial services.
Nemiro made an appearance on the show just a couple weeks prior to the original episode, when Murray spoke with Denzel Mosley and Brandon McClain of Nemiro Global Foundation, the latter of whom was actually once Simmons’ frat brother. More to the point is how Simmons was also somewhat close to the President of the Dominican Republic, who in 2008 asked him to depart a bit from the legislative and administrative side of politics that he had grown used to in a 25-year career which included work with Bill Clinton’s administration.
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“The reason that kind of happened and changed my mind is because when I was in government, my side hustle was doing businesses that were considered underserved markets. When you talk about my backgrounds with Coca Cola, people don’t realize and would always say, ‘Your net worth is worth your network,’ and so my contacts have always been phenomenal. I knew Coca Cola, Pepsi and these guys, and I was a third party vendor for them where I was setting up vending machines all over the United States and getting paid and they were doing all the work,” Simmons said. “People didn’t realize that and so I just kind of parlayed those relationships into other business opportunities, and then in 2008, when I was asked to come international, I started to see truly how money moved.”
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However, that sort of opportunity to learn more about money, to get more involved in it, is something that not many are given in the Black community, Simmons said.
“One of the things we are never taught in the Black community — and like I said, I’m sure we always have these conversations — we don’t talk money at the dinner table. My family was one of those, they didn’t talk money, but we always wanted to know what was the next step to obtaining, you know, generational wealth. Well, I saw it when I went to other countries. I saw how money moved through Western Union, through MoneyGram; I mean, we’re talking three companies control close to $800 billion moving from the United States and across the globe, and let me start by saying this: I realized at that point in time there were no African Americans involved in that money movement, and I thought that was absolutely bananas. I said, ‘How is it that we are 80% of the globe and minorities in color, but we don’t control any of the wealth?’ And so, then I started to turn my sights onto financial services,” Simmons said.
Concerning his companies and his Caribbean cashflow, or perhaps despite them, Simmons said he’s still comfortably situated right here in Orlando.
“I tell everybody, every country you visit, go to the local bank and see if you can set up a bank account. You know, most banks — with a United States passport — you can open up a bank account very easy. Most people don’t realize that. As an American citizen, these banks love and welcome our participation, but we don’t know about it so we never do it. All you got to do is take your passport in, tell them, ‘Hey, I want to open up a little savings or checking account,’ they probably are going to use the address of your hotel, which most of us do, and then pretty much they will issue you a bank account,” Simmons said. “Start moving some money into it, start playing the game, start seeing what your money looks like when you get their app and you spend $100 or $200 a month to your offshore account. You can play that game, they’ll give you a W-9, or they may have what they call IRS reciprocity, which means you do not see a report based upon the funds you send overseas. That’s the game that others have played, and remember, we’re late to the party.”
Hear the full interview and more in Season 2, Episode 27 of “Black Men Sundays.”
Black Men Sundays talks about building generational wealth. Check out every episode in the media player below.