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. 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 5000 African female entrepreneurs in 46 African countries, on a pro bono basis, on how to run successful businesses and become investor-ready. ImpactHER’s intervention has, (i) launched hundreds of African female-led businesses online, (ii) helped African women supply their products to U.S. vendors, and (iii) given African female-led SMEs access to over $1billion in institutional capital.
Efe designed and created content for the Africa curriculum for Google’s Women Will initiative (entrepreneurship and workplace training modules) which is currently being used to train over 10,000 women across Sub-saharan Africa. Launched in Sub-saharan Africa in 2019, Women Will is a Google initiative to create economic opportunity for women everywhere, so that they can grow and succeed.
Also, as an investment/private equity lawyer, Efe 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. Previously, she served as lead counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at a private equity firm focused on investing into Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, she serves as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at JP Morgan where she advises institutional investors.
In 2019, Efe was appointed to serve as a committee member on the African Union’s African Diaspora Health Initiative Steering Committee. Additionally, Efe served as the 41st Vice President of the Association of Black Women Attorneys NYC.
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 an advocate for financial inclusion for African women and the prosperity of Africa, having been featured in Forbes and spoken at Harvard Business School, the United Nations, Columbia Business School, Cornell University Business School, Duke Business School, on issues relating to Africa.