#BellaNaijaWCW: The Smart Money Woman Arese Ugwu is Pushing Financial Education for African Millennials

“Money has wings, and can fly,” is a popular statement all over the world depicting how recklessly we can spend, when we do not take steps to manage our finances.

We live in a time where buying has become easier than a walk in the park. You don’t even need to go to the marketplace anymore! From your mobile phone, punching a few numbers, you can buy anything from anywhere, at anytime and have it delivered to you, wherever you are!

With Instagram and other social media platforms, you don’t even need to search for what you want to buy, a program is able to study what you do on the web and then promote products on your timeline, that you most often than not are searching for. Other times, a product or service provider can create targeted ads and have them display on your timeline based on the demographic information you have entered about yourself. Amazing right? Until you do not know where your money went to at the end of the day.

With the advancement being recorded in the world today, our saving/money management methods also have to improve, otherwise, we’ll end up being broke, even if we have a regular income.

Our #BellaNaijaWCW this week is teaching people, especially millennials, how to make, keep and grow money in this day and age.

Whenever you hear “The Smart Money Woman,” one name comes to mind – Arese Ugwu, and understandably so.

Arese it the Founder of smartmoneyafrica.org, a personal finance platform for the African Millennial. In 2016, she released her debut book – The Smart Money Woman which has been receiving rave reviews across the continent.

Arese, through workshops, and vlogs is helping to promote financial literacy in Africa using illustrations and stories that are relatable and easy to understand.

She “is helping young Africans discover their power to build their future and make smarter money decisions through Smart Money Africa, a personal finance platform for the African millennial, engaging young Africans on the importance of financial literacy and the impact it has on helping them get money, keep money, and grow money.”

Smart Money Travel, a platform under the Smart Money Africa brand provides travel packages for the smart millennial, and it promises luxury for less.

Arese holds an MSc in Economic Development from University College London (UCL) and a BSc in Business and Management from Aston Business School, Birmingham. She is also an alumna of the of the Lagos Business School, INSEAD Abu Dhabi and The London Business School executive education programs.

She serves as an independent director on the boards of House of Tara, and the Nigerian Higher Education Foundation. She is also an associate member of  Women in Management Business and Public service (WIMBIZ) and has served on the planning committee since 2015.

She was a 2015 finalist and nominee for the Access Bank W award for Young Professional of the Year. She was also a nominee for The Future Awards Africa (2016)/University of Essex Prize for Education (Nigeria). She was also listed among YNaija’s ‘The New Establishment’ 2017 – an annual list of young Nigerians making defining moves towards shaping the future.

She also hosted Guardian TV’s personal finance show “Your Life Your Money”, and was a co-host for “Analyse This” on Ndani TV. These days, she hosts “The Bridge,” a financial literacy show produced by Business Day Newspaper and also discusses money-related issues on her YouTube channel – Smart Money Arese.