• Wednesday, May 08, 2024
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Women in Business: Chioma Ifeanyi-Eze

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Chioma  Ifeanyi- Eze is an Accounting guru with over 11 years of finance, bookkeeping and business consulting experience spanning over several industries of the economy. An expert in start-ups, she has been involved in starting up finance functions for several companies and projects. Trained in PricewaterhouseCoopers Nigeria, Chioma had further career stints in BankPHB, Jumia and a host of other companies where she headed the Finance/Accounting functions.

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She is the Founder of Accountinghub.ng. Nigeria’s premier professional services online shop focused on offering brilliant bookkeeping and tax support to startups and small businesses at super-affordable pricing. She presents virtual, retail and tech-accounting in Nigeria.

Ifeanyi-Eze holds a degree in Accounting and a Masters in Accounting and Finance. She is an Associate of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and the Chartered Institute of Taxation Of Nigeria. She recorded outstanding academic awards; graduating tops in her class and faculty in both her degree and masters programs and also bagging awards during her professional examinations.

She teaches young companies and people to embrace financial management in their personal lives, businesses and vocation. With a passion to improving SMEs, Chioma focuses on small business management, improving their book-keeping and accounting, ensuring that they have reliable financial information upon which they can take optimal business decisions.

Chioma is well respected in SME finance matters and is frequently asked to speak or serve in related committees or events.

There are over 9,000 accounting firms in the country and each of these firms, especially the small ones, works for one to 10 businesses in Nigeria, where there are over 40 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This huge gap between the number of SMEs and the number of accounting firms that are servicing them is what her organisation is doing its best to fill through their services.

That is why Chioma will readily tell you that unless you use technology, you cannot work for many SMEs because, the old accounting practice was done in a way that required your physical presence, and as such, spending days upon days looking through your books.

However, using technology, Ifeanyi-Eze says she does not need to come to you every day to carry out accounting services for you because she can work for up to 100 SMEs and more businesses can have credible numbers to make their decisions.

She insists that these businesses need credible numbers for their taxes; for their business decisions and for their businesses to be sustainable.

For anyone confused on how to start a business, she advises that you start with an entry offering for an entry market, take the very basic things you know how to do very well and weave it into a business.

“You will be shocked at how many people who do not think what you know or can do is ‘so basic’. Guess what? Even my nice handwriting has sold ‘market’. I arrived at a meeting and scribbled some processes as I spoke with the client. The woman offered to pay to take the sheet of paper from me after we finished the meeting.”

Also, for those who own businesses, if only you will commit to putting up a social media poster each day, you’ll notice an increase in your enquiries and sales up to 20% within 3 months. “The rate will keep growing and your skills at making the posts will keep improving” she advised.

Thinking of what business to do? Ifeanyi-Eze has a piece of advice for you. “My dear friend who is thinking of what business to do, are you noticing the huge inefficiencies around you? It could just be your license to ‘find your gold’. I found my gold from inefficiencies and I am still finding my gold.” She said.