Chigozirim Ugochukwu does not fit her idea of a tech executive. She is not loud. She does not dominate rooms by her sheer presence. In fact, she\u2019s so accustomed to being underestimated that when a male team member once challenged every instruction she gave simply because she was a woman, she did not even notice until her manager pointed it out.<\/p>\n
Ugochukwu tells the story with humor. When she had finally asked him what his problem with her was, he replied with, \u201cI don\u2019t understand why a woman would manage me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her response was direct. \u201cWould you rather be without a job? Because I can make that happen now.\u201d He eventually became the best person she ever managed. That same team member later reached out for a glowing recommendation after leaving the country.<\/p>\n
This is how Ugochukwu operates: quietly, strategically, and with an effectiveness that speaks louder than any boardroom performance. Today, as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of GetEquity, a Nigerian fintech platform that operates as a digital marketplace for private capital, she has built a career navigating Nigeria\u2019s tech ecosystem not by changing her introverted nature, but by leveraging it.<\/p>\n
The accidental tech journey<\/p>\n
Ugochukwu\u2019s path into tech was not planned. She studied law at the University of Abuja in Nigeria\u2019s capital as a tribute to an uncle she loved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had told me, \u2018If you\u2019re not going to study medicine because you want to rebel against your parents, then just do law,\u2019\u201d she recalls. When he died in the middle of her West African Examination Council (WAEC) exams in 2005, she honoured his wish.<\/p>\n
Ugochukwu\u2019s path to tech was lit in 2011. She met someone who would become the managing director of BetKing, a Nigerian sports betting company, Gossy Ukanwoke. He hired her on the spot to help build what was meant to be Nigeria\u2019s first online university, Beni American University. Ukanwoke had been instrumental in her decision to go to law school after graduating.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Ugochukwu used the interim period between graduation and law school to consider her post-graduation options before choosing to attend law school in 2013, three years after graduating from university.<\/p>\n
During her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), a mandatory one-year service program for Nigerian graduates, in 2015, she worked as a legal officer at the National Human Rights Commission, a government agency tasked with safeguarding human rights in Nigeria.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw things that made me realise if I continued, I would have been constantly depressed,\u201d she says. She had retained her employment with Gossy and Beni American University while she was in law school.<\/p>\n
The project later pivoted to executive e-learning, offering courses like project management and entrepreneurship. But Ugochukwu had already found her calling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hated how I learned in university,\u201d she explains. \u201cI loved the idea of online learning, creating access to things people wouldn\u2019t normally have access to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
At Beni American University, she saw the power of technology firsthand. It enabled people already in the workforce to earn degrees and gave those who could not afford traditional universities access to education.<\/p>\n
Within weeks of completing NYSC in 2016, she was in Lagos meeting with Bunmi Akinyemiju, the chief executive of Venture Garden Group, an investment holdings company for Nigerian fintech companies, interviewing for a Head of Programs and Partnerships position.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The VGG school of hard knocks<\/p>\n
At Venture Garden Group, Ugochukwu learned what it meant to build in tech. \u201cEverything I know about work ethics, about viewing companies and businesses, I learned there,\u201d she says. Her boss, Gossy Ukanwoke, threw her into the deep end, let her make mistakes, and taught her to think in systems.<\/p>\n
The first time she heard the term Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), she didn\u2019t know what it meant. But when asked to streamline processes, she instinctively explained how things should work. \u201cThey said, \u2018Oh yeah, that\u2019s exactly what a process is. Document it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
During audit season, if finance was in the office, she stayed in the office. She learned to build teams, create efficient processes, and manage people not through rigid task management but by communicating outcomes and letting people figure out how to achieve them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me what you want to achieve,\u201d she explains. \u201cLet me figure out how to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also learned something crucial about failure: \u201cIt\u2019s okay for things to break. As long as we haven\u2019t lost a lot of money in the process, how do we fix it?\u201d<\/p>\n
VGG shaped her philosophy on partnerships, too. \u201cIt\u2019s not all about what I can get. It\u2019s what value can I provide to you so that you can give me this partnership?\u201d That thinking extends to her entire approach to work and life\u2014give value to receive value, even when they\u2019re not commensurate.<\/p>\n
The compliance translator<\/p>\n
After leaving VGG in 2021, Ugochukwu moved to Outsource Global, a business process outsourcing company, as a Compliance Manager. \u201cSomeone on Twitter had reached out, saying I seemed to have \u2018the temperament for the role.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She\u2019d never done compliance before, but she understood something essential: compliance isn\u2019t about stopping people, butprotecting them.<\/p>\n
In her first week, she met with every department. \u201cWalk me through your entire process,\u201d she asked. She\u2019d slept in the office with tech teams at VG when deadlines loomed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them, \u2018I\u2019m not saying don\u2019t do what you need to do, I just want to understand how you work so you don\u2019t get into trouble. There are regulators we need to deal with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead of saying no to proposed new features and ideas from teams, she\u2019d present scenarios showing the possible risks, then let teams come up with solutions themselves. \u201cHow about we do it this way? You achieve what you want to achieve, and we are in the safe zone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The key was making people see compliance not as a roadblock but as a necessary partner.<\/p>\n
At GetEquity, where she\u2019s now COO, the approach is the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNigerian regulators are not people to be played with,\u201d she says matter-of-factly. Because the company doesn\u2019t yet have its full licence, advertising is limited. \u201cThere are times the growth team will do an ad. If I\u2019m lucky enough to see it before they push it out, I\u2019m like, \u2018Change this. If someone from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sees this, you\u2019re going to be in trouble.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She has Google alerts set up for GetEquity. \u201cI have to see what it\u2019s about. I do not want GetEquity painted in a bad light at any point.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For her, reputational risk is the one that never drops below amber in any risk register; it\u2019s the thing that keeps her up at night.<\/p>\n
Building GetEquity, one decision at a time<\/p>\n
Ugochukwu joined GetEquity first as a consultant in 2022, then as COO in 2023. The culture shock was immediate. She\u2019d never worked remotely before. She loved being around people, feeding off their energy, even if she didn\u2019t talk much.<\/p>\n
But the bigger shock was encountering what she calls \u2018self-proclaimed superstars who are really not good at their job.\u2019 People who were all talk on social media but couldn\u2019t execute.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The experience taught her to look deeper: \u201cAsk them questions. Dive deep into everything they\u2019re saying. Don\u2019t take what they say at face value.\u201d<\/p>\n
When GetEquity faced financial troubles in 2023 and needed to let people go, Ugochukwu wrestled with the decision. \u201cI love when people grow with me,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But she also understood risk management. She looked at her risk register\u2014the worst that could happen if they kept people they couldn\u2019t afford, versus the reputational damage of layoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat scares me most is reputational risk. A bad reputation can ruin a company,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Eventually, the math was clear: \u201cThe cons of still having people on the team outweighed the pros of letting them go.\u201d They had a town hall, explained where the company stood, and made the cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n