Nkechinyere Nweze is the founder and chief executive officer of Margvallup Group, a conglomerate business in Africa’s biggest economy.
She is a business development manager, farmer, and philanthropist with over 10 years specialised experience growing and managing businesses.
Nweze possesses interdisciplinary experience, having worked in the creative and agricultural sectors.
She is a venture builder and has pioneered several businesses. At some point in her career, she pivoted into the start-up space, going through all the different stages of its life cycle.
Today, she has successfully built the Marvgallup brand from a small events planning business to a conglomerate with investments in fashion, e-commerce, security, travel and charity.
Thereafter, she moved into the agritech space and in-between them launched three businesses.
“I have always been a serial entrepreneur, setting up companies and engaging in numerous business ventures from a very young age,” she says.
Read also:Advancing digital entrepreneurship and financial inclusion for women in Africa
Following her undergraduate degree at the Federal University of technology Owerri, Imo state Nigeria, where she majored in Agricultural and Bioresource Engineering, she spent her National Youth Service interning at Joyful Smiles Foundation while learning fashion and illustration, skills that would eventually shape her career.
With a strong desire to grow, acquire more skill and gain knowledge of international business practices, Nkechi pursued a Master’s in International Business and Management at the University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom.
While living in the United Kingdom, she discovered a need for Africans looking for seamless and affordable means to move outside the country via schooling or work and this informed her decision to set up Marvgallup Travel and Tours.
Today, Marvgallup travel and tours has become one of the leading travel agencies in Nigeria, offering a variety of premium and bespoke travel packages to its clients.
With her lofty ideas and dreams as well as her newly acquired knowledge, Nkechi made the decision to pursue more business opportunities.
Along with travel and tours, she has established numerous businesses offering wide range of services, from events to e-commerce and fashion.
With her earlier acquired knowledge in fashion design and illustration, Nkechi along with two of her friends and business partners established Davink, a fashion and clothing brand focused on creating premium handmade, contemporary and functional outfits, made with locally sourced material, for women in Africa and in the diaspora.
Despite her accomplishments and the establishment of Marvgallup Group as a household name, Nkechi was unsatisfied; she desired to leave her mark in the United Kingdom, where she currently resides.
With her keen eye for business opportunities, her passion for a sustainable future and her
background in Agricultural and Bioresource Engineering, Nkechi co-established Dravic, a Hydroponics farm in Bradford, United Kingdom. Dravic was created with the desire to protect food supply for the future by growing plants and crops without tampering with the soil.
In all her achievements, she did not forget her passion for service and people, she established the Marvgallup charitable foundation, a non-governmental organisation that seeks to utilise sustainable ways to fight poverty, eradicate hunger and provide education for the underprivileged in the society.
Under the foundation, Nkechi also created ‘She is A Powerhouse’ – a women-focused initiative and digital platform that caters to the physical, mental and career needs of women through events, networking sessions, seminars and financial empowerment.
Nkechi’s venture into the business world stemmed from her desire to transcend the limitations of her experiences and create equal opportunities across different social stratas.
She has demonstrated these through the creation of businesses and initiatives that have improved unemployment and marginalisation in her country of birth, Nigeria.
“At the centre of every business or initiative at Marvgallup is the value, equal opportunities, and empowerment it offers to organisations, individuals and nations of the world,” she said.
“Either by direct impact or through a secondary source. The accomplishments for us at this stage, points to the value we have accrued over the years,” she noted.
“However, we are not stopping here, the goal is to keep building and create a sustainable future that generations of people can benefit from.”
On the Marvgallup Charitable Foundation, she stated “In line with the United Nations SDGs, we hope to play our part in providing quality education, solve the hunger problem and significantly reduce poverty in our communities.”
Through innovative entrepreneurship, such as these, Nkechi intends to combat the economic deceleration in Sub-Saharan Africa, and become a major force in the emerging global African market, while creating social impact and sustainability.
