Efe Ukala is the founder of ImpactHER, an impact driven organization that focuses on bridging the financing gap for women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa. ImpactHER’s mission is to promote gender equality in Africa through the economic empowerment of women. The organization achieves its mission by helping African women business owners (i) access institutional capital for their business, (ii) scale their businesses while also helping them tackle business operational challenges, (iii) access new markets through the use of technology, and (iv) become investor-ready. ImpactHER has trained over 700 African female entrepreneurs in 25 African countries, on a pro bono basis, on how to run successful businesses and become investor-ready. ImpactHER’s intervention has, (i) launched over 100 African female-led businesses online, (ii) equipped dozens of women-led primary and secondary schools in Africa with Microsoft software, (iii) helped African women supply their products to U.S. vendors, and (iv) provided over $200,000 in intuitional funding to African female business owners to scale their business. A community of over 7,000 African women business owners from 28 African countries, ImpactHER ensures that no African female entrepreneur within its community is an entrepreneur in a vacuum.
Efe is also an experienced investment/private equity lawyer and has extensive experience in private and public investments arising out of frontier markets, inclusive of Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Rwanda. She has advised on investment worth over $15 billion in the U.S. market and over $300 million directed into Sub Saharan Africa. Currently, she serves as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at JP Morgan where she advises institutional investors.
Efe received her A.B. from the University of Chicago where she was a Jeff Metcalf Fellow and her J.D. from Washington and Lee University School of Law. Efe is a member of the New York State and New Jersey State Bars. She was an elected member of Board of the University of Chicago Black Alumni Association. Efe is passionate about advancing businesswomen and enjoys engaging in meaningful conversations on how to contribute to the growth of the African people.
Efe has been featured in Forbes and has also spoken at Harvard Business School’s Africa Business Conference, Columbia Business School, and the United Nations. Efe was appointed by the Ambassador of the African Union to the Americas to serve on the African Union, ADHI committee.