Gender Lens Advisory Group

Margaret Kimani

Head of Women & Youth Banking
SBM Bank, Kenya

Margaret Kimani is a Kenyan born author, investment banker, mentor, transformational leader, and philanthropist.

Sheholds a BA (Maths & Economics) from Kenyatta University, Cum Laude Honors BSC (Finance) from Northeastern University-Boston, and Master of Science MBA (Financial Economics) from Boston University, Massachusetts. She has worked as an Investment Banker at the State Street Bank of Boston, Massachusetts for over 10 years, and is currently the Head of Women & Youth Banking and doubles up as the Change Champion as a Diversity, Equality & Inclusion Ambassador at State Bank of Mauritius, Kenya.

Margaret is very instrumental in driving change in the Kenyan Banking Industry since 2011; she started Diaspora Banking from scratch at Chase Bank. Her contribution toward a first ever Diaspora Policy formulation, African Institute of Remittances (AIR) before moving to Women Markets program has seen the banking industry adopt innovative and more inclusive financial practices particularly in financial literacy to educate, empower and protect customers’ financial wellbeing.

A member of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC), Margaret is passionate about SMEs, customer centric innovations and job creation. She is an award-winning mentor with the Presidential DigiTalent Programme and champions UN Women Empowerment Principles at SBM. She is the Founder of Nduta Angels Foundation  is a mother of one daughter and enjoys spending quality time traveling the world with family, speaking, and mentoring the youth.

Andia Chakava

Investment Director,
Graca Machel Trust, Kenya

Andia Laura Chakava is an Investment professional and is passionate about facilitating intra Africa investment, investor education and is a global thought leader in gender lens investing. She is currently the Investment Director at the Graca Machel Trust, and co-leads the organization’s gender lens investing initiative. She is also the founding principal of AC Advisory a gender lens investment consultancy firm.

Andia has worked with various financial services institutions – banks, fund managers and development finance institutions to create gendered programs, product solutions and new frameworks to drive more capital towards women entrepreneurs in Africa. She has also worked collaboratively with various women networks to improve their agency, upskill their member base and strengthen partnerships.  She also promotes and highlights initiatives for first time female and diverse gender lens investment managers.

Andia is one of the first female fund managers in the Africa region and has been instrumental in the setup of two fund management companies from inception in Kenya where she served in each as Managing Director. She is the founding Chairperson of New Faces New Voices Kenya chapter (women in finance network), non-executive director of Sterling Investment Bank and East African Educational Publishers. She is an investment advisory board member of Kenya women’s enterprise fund, an investment committee member of OPES LCEF- an impact investment fund and the Chair of the investment advisory council for Canada’s Equality Fund. 

She has over 18 years experience in fund management and over 8 years of driving women economic empowerment goals. She holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance with merit from Cass Business School in London and an honours degree in Economics from York University in Toronto.

Thelma Ekiyor

Managing Partner
SME.NG, Nigeria

Thelma Ekiyor has over 21 years experience working in the development sector, as an Impact Investor, donor, philanthropic advisor, and social entrepreneur. She has experience working in 22 African countries. She has pioneered, founded and led a number of organisations and initiatives focused on impact investing and women’s economic empowerment. In 2020, Ms. Ekiyor was listed as one of the 50 most influential women in the development sector in Africa.

Thelma is currently the Managing Partner SME.NG – Nigeria’s Impact Investment Platform, which has set up two impact funds for women entrepreneurs. She is the Co-Founder/Chairperson of Afrigrants Resources and also served as its pioneering CEO. At Afrigrants, she led the establishment of “Market Women’s Quick Cash” – A financial inclusion solution to provide micro-loans to women in disadvantaged communities. She also founded Afrigrants Foundation dedicated to the socio-economic advancement to girls and women. She also led the conceptualization of “The Ebi Fund” – an impact fund for women entrepreneurs.

Thelma is also the Founder & Co-Convener of The Funding Space – a mentoring and access to finance platform for social entrepreneurs in Africa. Prior to establishing Afrigrants, Ms. Ekiyor was the pioneer CEO of TY Danjuma Foundation, and grew an endowment of $100 million. Before that, She served as the Pioneering Executive Director of the West African Civil Society Institute (WACSI), which was established by the George Soros Foundation’s Open Society Institute for West Africa. She supervised investments and interventions in 15 countries across West Africa.

Thelma holds an MBA (Entrepreneurship & Innovation) from Imperial College London, UK; a Law Degree (LLB Honours) from University of Buckingham UK. She is also a Fellow of Stanford University, USA.

Hamdiya Ismaila

General Manager
Venture Capital Trust Fund, Ghana

Hamdiya has over 20 years’ experience in Finance and Investments and over 13 years’ experience in Venture Capital and Private Equity investing. She has supported the Venture Capital and Private Equity ecosystem development through education and influencing policy and regulatory outcomes for the industry in Ghana. She is currently the General Manager of Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF), where she oversees the Investments and general operations of the Trust. She reviews fund proposals, conducts due diligence and presents investment recommendations to the Trustees of the Fund. She also manages the Venture Capital Trust Fund Technical Assistance Facility, which is designed to support Fund Managers and build the capacity of investee companies.

Prior to joining VCTF, she was a Deputy Director at the Ministry for Private Sector Development, where she led in the provision of Business Advisory Services, financing arrangements, enterprise support services, skills development, entrepreneurship training, and promotional workshops for MSMEs. She is an Angel Investor and was instrumental in the design of the Ghana Angel Investor Network (GAIN). She is also a Director of the Ghana Angel Fund and a Founder of the Lady Angel Network – which invests in women owned/led businesses. She chaired the Ghana Taskforce which successfully led to the establishment of a National Advisory Board (NAB) for Impact Investing Ghana (IIGH). Ghana, through IIGH is now a member of the Global Steering Group (GSG) for impact investing. She has been at the forefront of impact investing over the last 8 years, establishing the GIMPA Centre for Impact Investing and working closely with the team and other stakeholders in promoting impact investing in the country.

Ms. Ismaila currently serves as a Trustee of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investing. She is also a Council Member for the Ghana Alternative Exchange (a second tier listing platform for SMEs on the Ghana Stock Exchange) and a member of the Governing Council of the Star Ghana Foundation. Ms. Ismaila Holds an Executive Certificate in Private Equity and Venture Capital from Harvard Business School, a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University in the City of New York, BBA (Sum Cum Laude) from Monroe College and an LLB degree from the GIMPA Law School. She is a Fellow of the 2019 Class of the Aspen Finance Leaders Fellowship and a Member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.