ProChange’s journey starts with a pain point caused by the fragmented nature of the accounting/financial services market across African and Middle Eastern countries: thousands of individuals work within this field, and yet the challenge to obtain reliable and affordable accounting and financial services remain inaccessible.
The financial services market in both African and Middle Eastern continents are dominated by known, large, international brand names whose premium pricing is rarely affordable to smaller firms or those struggling financially. Across several countries, innovation has enabled startup sectors to thrive. However, so many of these startups face the risk of failure because they do not have access to quality and affordable financial advisory services.
Founders who have no finance/accounting background are especially at a disadvantage, because they have difficulty reading financial statements, and so it becomes difficult for them to maintain quality reporting standards and/or act on bleeding expenses. Without this very critically basic need being met, organizations do not operate at their optimal levels.
Our company’s founder was driven to find a sustainable solution to the challenge of affordable quality financial services, which may determine whether a company thrives or fails.
These questions and considerations led to the founding of ProChange, a company which seeks to democratize access to quality financial advice and services throughout the world. We show up as a partner firm, whose success is only as good as that of its Clients.
Financial wellness for all.
To empower every individual and every organization on the planet with financial confidence by democratizing access to quality financial services
Nehal Shukla is the CEO and Founder of ProChange Africa. Nehal considers herself a global citizen as she was born and raised in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, a city she still considers home but is ethnically Indian and has lived in 8 cities and visited 39 countries. Nehal has lived and thrived professionally across several continents (North America, Asia, and Africa) and organizations. She brings her appreciation for diversity to her work and hopes this will inspire continued collaborations across cultures.
Prior to founding ProChange, Nehal worked in Credit Suisse’s Investment Banking Operations and Global Tax Program for Change Management groups in both New York and Singapore for 5 years to better her knowledge of financial products, as well as system and process implementation before deciding to shift her career to the African non-profit world with Ashoka Innovators for the Public.
At Ashoka, Nehal served as the Chief Financial Officer for the continent of Africa. At Ashoka Africa, Nehal worked primarily to ensure proper financial governance and oversight within the key regional Sub-Saharan African offices.
Nehal holds a MSc. focused on Entrepreneurship and Innovation from HEC Paris located in Jouy-en-Josas, France and a BSc. double major in Finance and Operations Management and a minor in Chinese language from Georgetown University located in Washington, DC, USA. She was awarded the Dean’s Leadership Award from the McDonough School of Business upon graduation for her leadership service to the university during her time there.