The African Studies Center (ASC) at the University of Michigan in the United States has welcomed Ugo Ikemba and Kwame Marfo as its new advisory board members. Both of them U-M alumni, will bring their rich experience and knowledge to ASC’s advisory board in the coming years.
Ugochukwu (“Ugo”) Ikemba (AB, MArch, MBA, University of Michigan) is a global finance executive with experience in private equity and impact investing. Currently a partner in the London-based firm of Actus Partners, his focus is on SME growth investments in emerging markets, including Africa and the Caribbean.
While a student in Ann Arbor, Ugo founded the African Business Enterprise Corps in the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, which has been incorporated into the Multidisciplinary Action Projects program of the William Davidson Institute.
His experience in private equity, development finance, and SME operations spans almost two decades, starting from his early work in African Capital Alliance in Nigeria culminating in development finance work at the World Bank. In 2013, he was appointed by the President of Nigeria to the Board of the Securities & Exchange Commission of Nigeria, where he chaired the Corporate Governance Committee and developed regulations overseeing Nigeria’s PE industry. From 2017 to 2019, Ugo headed a US$160M World Bank project focused on entrepreneurship, SME development, capacity-building, and employment generation in Nigeria.
In partnership with another Michigan alumnus, Ugo founded the largest running club in Nigeria, the Road Warriors Fitness Club, in 2012. The club has grown to hundreds of members who run marathons all over the world.
Kwame Marfo is a managing partner at Africa Empowerment Fund and board chair at Business Center for New Americans, a community development financial institution that invests in immigrant and refugee owned businesses. Kwame has over a decade and a half of experience in business, government, civil society, and media sectors across four continents with experiences ranging from leading strategy and business model analysis at the Bank of England, to investing in small and medium-sized enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa and human rights activism in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Marfo has written for The Business and Financial Times, Citi Business News, Africa at LSE, Modern Ghana, ZNews Africa, Applause Africa, The Africapitalism Institute, and MyJoyOnline. Kwame is the international executive producer of the award-winning documentary, When Elephants Fight, which was executive produced and narrated by Robin Wright (Claire Underwood from House of Cards). He is currently working on another documentary on how black civil rights movements in the 1920s inspired the formation of a soccer team, the birth of a nation, and the consolidation of Pan African unity. He is on the boards of Birthright Africa, Impact Capital Forum, Infoview Data Solutions Limited, and Business Center for New Americans (BCNA).
Marfo has a BS (Hons) from Binghamton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and an MBA from The University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
