Arese Ugwu: Teaching African Women How to Make Their Money Work for Them
ABOUT ARESE UGWU
Arese Ugwu is the founder of Smart Money Africa, a personal finance platform targeting millennial Africans, with a mission to educate all Africans about financial literacy. Arese ‘s ground-breaking books, The Smart Money Woman and Smart Money Tribe, are helping young Africans make wiser financial decisions to empower their futures.
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
It’s important to Arese Ugwu that women become more self-aware about financial issues. Her passion is rooted in her personal experiences. She had a career in finance, but even with her knowledge about growing wealth and making investments, the reality of managing personal finances was driven home when she became a single mother. From her experiences facing financial challenges, she wants others to learn how to manage their money better.
Hear about how Arese came around to authoring her books and some interesting experiences setting up a tour. She talks about the power of social media and using the platforms she organically built to create her business.
During the conversation, Arese talks about peer pressure as a detriment to saving and investing. A key theme is spending should be a reflection of your values and not spending like society thinks you should.
Listen to this episode for Arese Ugwu’s advice about personal finances and what she has learned from starting her business.
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
It’s important to Arese Ugwu that women become more self-aware about financial issues. Her passion is rooted in her personal experiences. She had a career in finance, but even with her knowledge about growing wealth and making investments, the reality of managing personal finances was driven home when she became a single mother. From her experiences facing financial challenges, she wants others to learn how to manage their money better.
Hear about how Arese came around to authoring her books and some interesting experiences setting up a tour. She talks about the power of social media and using the platforms she organically built to create her business.
During the conversation, Arese talks about peer pressure as a detriment to saving and investing. A key theme is spending should be a reflection of your values and not spending like society thinks you should.
Listen to this episode for Arese Ugwu’s advice about personal finances and what she has learned from starting her business.
Highlights of the episode:
The power of story as a medium for learning (2:38) Why having a saving and investment mindset is so important and the dichotomy of mindsets (6:32) What is financial independence for a woman? (9:51) Building wealth is about balancing two levers (13:42) We need to become more aware of our personal values and how they relate to our spending habits (17:18) Africa will humble you quickly. Some advice for navigating your career or business. (22:15) Arese Ugwu’s journey to authoring her books (23:23)Creating creative with her book launch and how it’s launching opportunities (31:04) Our problems with finances are more universal than we think (36:48) A discussion about pirates stealing digital works and its impact on the creators (41:29) Mentioned Resources
Arese Ugwu’s Bio
In print, online, on screen, and in person, Arese is leading the charge in guiding young Africans as they start their journey to financial literacy. The success of her first book ‘The Smart Money Woman’ led her to a wildly successful Pan-African book tour and spawned ‘The Smart Money Woman’ television series, of which she is Executive Producer.
She is also the co-executive producer and host of BusinessDay’s The Bridge, a contributor to multiple publications, a sought-after speaker on the continent and serves on several boards including for House of Tara, the Nigeria Higher Education Foundation as a non-executive director and is an associate member of WIMBIZ.
Her experience working in wealth management in Nigeria led her to build the Smart Money Africa brand, a multimedia Financial education platform purpose-built to facilitate African millennials’ conversations about investments, wealth, entrepreneurship, and employment that motivate young people to learn new, diverse ways to earn, keep and grow wealth.
She holds an MSc in Economic Development from University College London (UCL) and a BSc in Business and Management from Aston Business School, Birmingham. She is also an alumna of the of the Lagos Business School, INSEAD Abu Dhabi, and The London School of Business executive education programs.
ABOUT ZEZE ORIAIKHI-SAO Zeze Oriaikhi-Sao Master’s in International Business . She also holds a BSc (Hons) in Informatics. She is a mother, and an international and entrepreneurial leader. The Founder and Managing director of Malée Natural Science; Africa’s 1st global luxury fragrance and body care brand operating across two continents with products available in 9 countries in wholesale, B2B, Hospitality, E-commerce and travel retail. An advisory board member and Program Director at INNOCOS, the world beauty innovations summit as well as a consultant and international speaker and beauty industry expert on the luxury beauty and cosmetics industry, sustainability practices, innovation, disruption, trends, and brand heritage.
Featured in international TV and Media publications such as CNN, The Telegraph, Grazia, ELLE Magazine, Glamour, Oprah Magazine, and Atlanta Post. She is a pioneer of Female owned luxury business in Africa and is passionate about innovation. Zeze is the host of the pioneering podcast Third Culture Africans. She shares entrepreneurial tips and more on her personal website Zezeonline.com.
