Andia Laura Chakava

Managing Partner, Investment Director at Afrishela Fund (Promoted by the Graça Machel Trust)

Speaker

Andia Chakava has over 20 years’ experience in fund management and over 12 years of driving women economic empowerment. Andia has established herself as a global thought leader in gender lens investing and is one of the first female fund managers in the Africa region and has made considerable contributions towards promoting the social and economic inclusion of women in Africa through the development and structuring of fit for purpose funds having set up two fund management companies in East Africa. At Graca Machel Trust ( GMT ) in her role as Investment Director, she is co-leading the development of a $30 million Pan African gender lens investment vehicle called 'Afrishela’ to invest in ‘missing middle’ enterprises in East and Southern Africa.

She is the current chair of the investment advisory council for Canada's Equality Fund and an independent director of 2X Global. In Kenya she sits on the board of East African Educational Publishers and Sterling Investment Bank. She has over 16 years of senior leadership experience working comfortably across interdisciplinary and multi-cultural teams. She brings a combination of regional and international best practice to provide both financial and non-financial support to women in business.