“It all makes sense when you look at my story holistically. Every step along the way, I was always thinking about my future in Africa and how I would position myself to serve the continent in the best way.”
Nehal was born and raised in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo. This upbringing laid the roots for her passion: having a tangible impact on the African continent. Nehal received her high school diploma from The American School of Kinshasa and received her Bachelor's in Business Administration with a double major in Finance, Operations & Information Management from Georgetown University, a prestigious university located in Washington, DC, USA.
Living a life of dichotomy between the developed and developing world fueled an early ambition to bridge the divide. At Georgetown, Nehal pursued a minor degree in Chinese language and also engaged in an intensive summer Chinese language study program in Beijing at MinZu DaXue with very clear intent as China’s interest in Africa was increasing. Whilst studying, Nehal interned at Grameen Foundation, a Washington, DC based non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting microfinance institutions globally following the Grameen model. She also interned at Ashoka, Innovators for the Public, a global non profit organisation supporting social entrepreneurs globally. Although these organisations were based in the US, they had projects and offices on the African continent, which is what drew Nehal to them - to ultimately contribute to bridging the gap between the US and the African continent.
Aware of her mission, Nehal’s university professors encouraged her to take advantage of corporate opportunities, seeing them as stepping stones towards her ultimate goal of serving Africa. A route that would offer her lessons and learnings she could later put to good use in fulfilling the ‘how to’s’ to get to where she wanted to be. She switched gears and accepted a position at Credit Suisse’s New York headquarters as an Investment Banking Operations Analyst dedicating almost five years between New York and Singapore, soaking up knowledge within the investment banking realm. Over the years, she felt increasingly misaligned while working in banking, mainly because of her intent on finding a way to have an impact on the African continent and contribute to meaningful work in this region. Toward this end, she quit her job at Credit Suisse without having a backup job or a concrete plan on how she would return home.
“I tried to love it. I would burnout not because of workload but because my values just weren't aligned. I see the same in young professionals I come across today. I can see they are not fulfilled but they keep on keeping on as it pays the bills and makes their parents proud but deep down they are misaligned with who they really are.”
Nehal struggled to secure any nonprofit/social enterprise roles in Africa due to her heavy investment banking experience which did not fit the traditional mould for non profit positions. Although faced with a lot of rejection, she continued to apply to various opportunities and networked on LinkedIn with people across various sectors in the hopes of landing an opportunity that would ignite her next chapter. After 6 long months, on the same day, Nehal received two job offers: a position at Goldman Sachs as Assistant Vice President and a position Ashoka, the nonprofit she had interned at a couple of years prior, as Finance Consultant for the Africa region. THIS was Nehal’s sliding door moment. From Wall Street to Nairobi, Nehal found her way back home returning as Ashoka’s finance consultant for their Africa region and later taking up the role of CFO for the Africa Continent.
“Each door would lead me to a very different looking life but in my heart I already knew the answer. Yes, a massive pay cut, and a lot of learning from scratch, but it just felt so right.”
Returning to the continent and working across 4 country offices (Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, and Nigeria), over the next few years, Nehal spent a lot of time learning about finance in Africa: from accounting infrastructure, to how donors operated and what their financial requirements were. After three years of little sleep and complete commitment to getting a hold of these new territories, Nehal had built the confidence and acumen required to take her next leap into entrepreneurship. She realised that she could take what she was doing, and bring this expertise to any company or organisation which aligned with her values and where she could add tangible value. This was the seed for what would later become ProChange, an Africa-focused financial advisory firm that enables Startups and SME’s to enhance their financial know-how and capacity to be able to take on larger projects in order to achieve their long-term goals and targets.
“I noticed there was a gap in the market. I was having a really hard time recruiting good financial support for my own team. ProChange was born out of frustration. I needed outsourced quality consultants but no brand or business stood out that was for SME’s, there was only the big four. We set up ProChange - and by ‘we’ I mean my computer and I [laughs out loud]”
From what initially started as an experiment, ProChange went from one client to two, to four, and is now sustainably scaling as a true platform business, connecting financial consultants and CFO’s to SME’s across Africa. As she reflects on her journey, she is reminded of her number one cheerleader, her father. A seasoned entrepreneur who set up and runs a successful business in the DRC, one of the toughest markets in the world for doing business. In her critical decision making juncture, it was her father who supported Nehal’s decision to follow her heart and take the Ashoka position.
Along the journey, there were others who supported ProChange to become what it is today. Jessica Colaco (a connection she made while working at Ashoka) showed Nehal unwavering support in the early days, becoming one of ProChange’s early clients. Another key person in the ProChange journey was also a client, Melanda Schmid-Ochieng, who supported Nehal in laying the groundwork for ProChange’s business platform model, igniting its next stage of growth. Nehal continues to meet client-founders, who inspire her to continue the journey of ProChange given their positive feedback around the model and quality of services.
“I am finally in a place where my values fully align with what I do and it’s such a treat and privilege to create opportunities for others and work in a business that makes sense to my personal goals and purpose. Is it challenging? Absolutely! But I want to have an impact and I get to play a hand in this across varying industries throughout Africa.”
Nehal’s vision is for ProChange to become the ‘go-to’ pan-African brand for companies who need fractional finance support. As she breaks down the challenge of financial support and infrastructure for her clients, they continue to feed her with inspiration to keep driving impact across the continent. Nehal is a founder who is driven with a strong mission to provide quality financial services to startups and SMEs who cannot afford the big four prices and to enable founders to scale with sound financial decisions. Her mission to democratise access to quality financial services across the continent will have a resounding impact in the global economy.
“Solving niche challenges Founders face”.