For months after Dr Karimi Ngeera witnessed the scale up of Hewa Tele, a social enterprise under the Centre for Public Health and Development (CPHD) in Kenya, she felt stuck. The expansion would have seen her return to commercial finance, which she had left behind two years earlier.
With her at the helm of the finance department, the organisation had grown and was gearing up to establish the second liquid oxygen plant in Kenya and the largest in East Africa.
“I came across a LinkedIn post by a lady called Pauline Kiraithe who runs the Ascend programme for people who feel stuck in their careers. I attended the four-week course, and she made us create a career development plan. Where do you want to be in the next one year? And what was very clear is, I don't want to be in commercial finance. I want to be in impact finance,” she explained.
At 5am one morning, Karimi wrote to Pauline, explaining that she had decided that she would quit her job in three months. Although Karimi had no job lined up, she felt a strong impulse to resign and search for opportunities in impact finance. When Pauline called her three hours later, she advised her against the decision. But Karimi’s mind was made up. She then sent a WhatsApp message to a group chat of her three friends (Muthoni, Wamaitha and Grace), who supported her decision. That was on 16 July 2023. Three months later, HEVA Fund came calling.
“When I came for the interviews, and met with the partners, they told me they wanted me for a short-term project. But they said they were planning to open a position for a finance director in February 2024, and they felt I was fit for that position. I was supposed to quit CPHD on 16 October, which was still my plan. A few days before that, I was telling my friend Grace that HEVA said they were going to send an offer letter, but they had not sent it yet. And then on the morning of the 16th, I saw the letter and called my friend, and she said, ‘you told God, you're going to quit on the 16th. So why were you stressing yourself out on the 10th or the 14th?’,” Karimi said.
Impact finance
It has been a year since Karimi joined HEVA Fund and eight months since she took on the finance director role. She describes the fund, which aims to fuel the growth of Africa’s creative industries, as her “happy place”. In that time, she has designed an accounting and finance management programme tailored specifically for creative entrepreneurs to help them address bookkeeping and documentation, cash flow management, pricing strategies, and tax compliance, among others, with the aim of building sustainable businesses.
Once every month, Karimi speaks with the business owners of the companies HEVA has invested in about challenges they experience and develop strategies to overcome these challenges. Alongside the monthly conversation, Karimi also leads the extensive post-investment support services that HEVA offers the artists it funds. This has helped artists scale their businesses, sustain profitability and aim for long-term viability.
Karimi’s career began in fits and starts. After she completed her BCom at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, she secured a job at the Standard Chartered branch in Meru. But for the entire year, she was not able to persuade even one person to open an account at the bank. Feeling disillusioned, she began to search for another job. Her mother put her in touch with former Chuka University vice chancellor Professor Erastus Njoka, who was a family friend.
“I took my CV and documents to him, and he looked at them a couple of times, asked me, ‘where are your other papers?’ He pulled out about six CVs from his drawer, and then told me, ‘This person has a CPA. This one has a master’s. So even when I go to the recruitment committee, I can't help you’,” she said.
Karimi began taking classes for her CPA(K) certification in the evenings while pursuing her MBA at the Kenya Methodist University, but was quickly overwhelmed.
She then quit her job and became a full-time student for two years before joining Two Ems Associates, a land surveying and mapping consulting firm, where she worked for five years. She has held several positions since then, including head of finance at Power Transmission and Control Services, finance lead at Includovate, and finance and grants manager at the Centre for Public Health and Development. But at HEVA, she finally feels at home.
“You will go to an organisation that says ‘we are like a family’, but then in this instance, it actually feels like it, people who watch your back. Everybody carries their weight. You do not have instances where something is due today, but it hasn’t not been done. It is due today, but it was done three days ago. For me, that really was a very good match because I'm a very task-oriented person,” she said.
She credits her bosses with trusting her and allowing her to lead the organisation in her area of expertise, a far cry from previous roles. For this reason, she manages her team in the same way, encouraging them to take on challenging tasks so that they can grow. She draws her management philosophy from her own life experiences, which have taught her the importance of nurturing others.
Paying it forward
When she was in her first year of university, Karimi had a baby. Her parents found her a live-in nanny for the duration of her degree, ensuring she completed her studies. The woman, who was in her late twenties, taught Karimi all there was to know about childcare despite being childless herself. After Karimi graduated, she vowed to pay it forward.
“I realised work is the biggest way to create impact, because you are at work for more than eight hours a day. If I don't spend them impacting at least one, two, or three businesses, it does not make sense. But if I spend two or three hours impacting businesses, I will have a bigger reach in terms of the people that get the impact. It will create more jobs for people. Businesses will be more sustainable. People will get paid as they should be paid. So, I really want to create impact, and I think the organisation provides me with that opportunity,” she said.
And while finance leaders are often expected to have answers, the fast-talking finance director is not afraid to acknowledge when she does not. An enthusiastic fan of American researcher Brene Brown’s teachings on vulnerability, Karimi approaches leadership with a collaborative mindset, encouraging her team members to share their ideas. She is grateful to her mentor, Zep-Re CFO Rachael Gitonga, who has held her hand throughout her career. Rachael, an avid marathoner, also introduced Karimi to running, a hobby she took up reluctantly at first.
“I think when you get that runner’s high, it's impossible to stop. During the week when I run, even when I take a rest, I feel like I'm missing something. Also, on the road, it's a quiet time. You're able to think about things. Especially when you run in the morning, it's very cool. It's very calm. There are few people on the road. So, it gives you a very good start for the week,” she said.
Family first
In the coming year, Karimi hopes to spend more time with her 13-year-old daughter, whom she wants to see become a better version of herself. When she had a baby at nineteen, she felt she had fallen short of her parents’ expectations. She threw herself into studies, keen to prove that she could surmount any challenge.
“That particular moment really shaped my progression in life and made me very aggressive. She's in junior high school now. That's a lot of responsibility. I am 32 years old. This has made me stand out from my peers a lot. Because then I have that drive. I had moments of overcompensating because I felt I had let my parents down. In the past I have had those moments where I speak to myself and say ‘no, I need to be a better example to my siblings’,” she said.
Despite the challenges of becoming a mother at a young age, Karimi would not change a thing about the path her life has taken.
“So, to my younger self I would say ‘a day at a time. Things will make sense in the end.’ Because if you had told me when I was in the hospital at 19 having a child that I would have a doctorate by the time I was 31, I would have said it’s not possible”, she said.
