Salma Okonkwo[edit | edit source][edit]

Salma Okonkwo is an entrepreneur from Ghana. Convinced that women know how to move mountains, after being the first woman CEO of Sahara Energy and building her own Energy company-UBI- with over $150M annual revenue, her next goal is now to build the largest solar farm in West Africa.

Salma Okonkwo, the lady who energizes Africa

Early life[edit | edit source][edit]

Born Salma Iddrissu in Accra, Ghana (8 july 1970) , Salma grew up in a big family of 14 children, where at an early stage she often navigated complex adolescent human relationships with her siblings and parents. She jokingly refers to those days as the beginning of her people building skills and work ethic. Her mother was a real estate agent and developer and her father a cattle dealer. Her grandmother was a great influence in her life and she often visited her in her family’s ancestral village. She's a member of the Akan clan, whose women are industrious and often engage in petty trading of multiple self-made goods and food items to make sure their children are provided for — This left an indelible mark on Salma and she best described it when she told me, “The women didn’t know how to read and write, but they knew how to make a margin”.

Career[edit | edit source][edit]

After graduating from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California, Salma Okonkwo was hired by an Oil and Gas company called Sahara Energy.

2003-2013[edit | edit source][edit]

in 2003 and soon became the first woman CEO of the company in Ghana.

She established the UBI Energy in 2007, handling the sourcing, shipping, storage and financing of refined petroleum products from across the world to customers in Ghana and the West African Sub-Region.

2013-2018[edit | edit source][edit]

In 2013, Puma Energy acquired a 49 percent stake in two of UBI’s Group’s subsidiaries, a business move that reinforced her reputation as a formidable business strategist. UBI was the first indigenous company to support the oil industry’s upstream sector.

In 2015, the new group became the first indigenous company to own an aviation supply and storage facility in Ghana, which today serves global airlines such as British Airways.

2018-present[edit | edit source][edit]

in 2018 she launched Blue Power Energy on a quest to build the largest solar farm in west Africa, half of which will be situated in Okonkwo’s ancestral village, with 100MVp capacity and started raising funds for the project, which will create more than 650 jobs and produce energy for more than 50 000 households.

Having success and give it back to community are Salma’s first sources of joy, so she is trying her best to industrialize and lift a minimum of 2000 families above poverty line per annum, by making them self-sustainable.

Salma Okonkwo weaves philanthropic objectives into solid business principles, She believes that if Africa wants to become a developed continent and not an underdeveloped one, it must industrialize. She is convinced that Africa needs to focus on solar energy as a renewable energy source, which will create employment, industrialize the Continent and make a sustainable impact.

Salma Okonkwo is one of the few women to excel in a male dominated industry. Despite that, she doesn’t consider herself just a female entrepreneur but a successful leading entrepreneur.

"I don’t stop when the door is being shut. I find a way to make it work. "  ~ Salma Okonkwo

Philanthrophy and charity projects[edit | edit source][edit]

Salma is also known for her campaign on environmental issues. To set an example to other companies in this regard, she has molded UBI into an environmentally–friendly company by investing in fiber glass tank installations for fuel storage at UBI filling stations.

Aside business, Salma’s philanthropic deeds have also won her much admiration in the public eye. Salma is an advocate of women empowerment in Ghana. She is currently involved in women and Children mentoring programs and is an ardent supporter and partner of Jeffrey Sach’s Millennium Villages in Ghana, striving to contribute to the reduction of extreme poverty in Ghana and achieving the Millennium development goals for Ghana.

The Mother’s heart foundation is an organization that Salma Okonkwo founded to aid the less privileged in society. She currently sponsors the education and sustenance of over 30 less priviledged children with the first batch of graduants producing a soldier and a teaching assistant at the University of Ghana.

Mrs. Okonkwo, through the UBI Group also support the Korle-bu cardiothoracic centre to perform corrective surgeries for patients suffering from the hole-in-heart condition. She believes a life saved is a contribution to the man power development of this country.

As part of its social responsibility, the UBI Group, through the leadership of Mrs. Salma Okonkwo is the only oil & gas company that sponsors and supports the President’s Tennis Cup, a tennis tournament held annually at the Accra Sports Stadium and organised by the Ghana Tennis Association. She encourages under-privileged and street kids to participate, resulting in unearthing skills and talents.

Awards and recognitions[edit | edit source][edit]

2019

She is the first african woman winner of the Ghana Energy Awards.

2021

The Cherie Blair Foundation added her to the list of women changing the world, alongside Oprah Winfrey, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Rebecca Enonchong, Sue Black OBE and Bibian Mentel.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cherie-blair-foundation-for-women_womens-history-month-women-entrepreneurs-activity-6779708349387677696-26FL

Personal life[edit | edit source][edit]

Salma acknowledges the importance of the role of the woman as a mother, being a mother of three and a wife who still believes that her husband is the head of her household.

Links[edit | edit source][edit]

https://salmaokonkwo.com/

http://ubicorp.org/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2018/07/31/ghana-solar-farm-ubi-salma-okonkwo/

https://www.vanityfair.it/mybusiness/donne-nel-mondo/2021/04/18/salma-okonkwo-donna-energia-africa

https://forbes.it/eventi/empower-the-future

http://www.sobridges.com/team/salma-okonkwo/

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2vrlsj

https://www.iea.org/reports/seven-women-entrepreneurs-of-solar-energy

https://salmaokonkwo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Ghana-The-Times-published-new.pdf

https://bluebridgegroup.net/

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/03/investors-african-entrepreneurs-startup-change-energy

https://nextbillion.net/covid19-recovery-manufacturing-africa-pandemic/

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/investors-are-failing-african-entrepreneurs-its-time-change

https://www.energyvoice.com/opinion/286081/africa-women-grid-solar/