Ucha Unimke-Ulayi

Ucha is an Enterprise Support Organization's Programme Manager in Impact Investors Foundation (set up by Ford Foundation and other partners). She drives the Nigerian ESO Collaborative with over 180 SME support organizations fostering a robust ecosystem for business growth, innovation, and economic development. Her alumni memberships include the Columbia Business School Executive Programme, New York; West London College London, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management SME Academy Germany; the University of New Hampshire Carsey School of Public Policy SMDP training on VSLA in South Africa etc. Ucha’s passion is building effective sustainable systems for MSMEs to thrive as she is an in-demand Conference Speaker, Panelist and Moderator across International Conferences in Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda and beyond!

She was in the UKTech Hub's "Future Females" accelerator programme, advised on Finance for Flapmax/Microsoft FAST Accelerator, made presentations at Green House Capital Women Entrepreneurship Masterclass and served as a Facilitator for the SLA /CFYE Netherland's Level Up Programme. She was a Mastercard Foundation Scholar in 2010 and 2015. Her work spans over 20years with developed expertise in MSME Development, Finance and Consulting. She is certified in Business Development Service Provision (BDSP) from the Enterprise Development Center (EDC) of the Pan Atlantic University and also in Agricultural Value Chain Finance from Frankfurt School of Management and Finance. Her advocacy in digital finance literacy for women has been further enhanced participating in the Gender Finance Equity program of DFI created by the University of Pretoria.