Chioma Ukonu is an award-winning social entrepreneur and social development professional with over a decade of hands-on experience and international exposure in environmental sustainability, women empowerment, youth employment, leadership, circular economy, government and community engagement. She is currently the Co-Founder and COO of RecyclePoints which is Nigeria’s foremost waste recycling and social benefit venture, motivating post-consumers to recycle by creating value from their everyday waste.
Chioma has a bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Physics from the Federal University of Technology Owerri Nigeria and has received business training from various prestigious institutions around the world including the Said Business School – Oxford University, Drake University and the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) of the Pan Atlantic University in Nigeria.
Chioma has grown RecyclePoints from her kitchen to a major stakeholder in the waste management and sustainability sector in Nigeria; creating over 250 green jobs, 9 operational locations, servicing over 10,000 households, and recycling over 100,000kg of waste monthly, whilst sustaining RecyclePoints as the social currency that converts waste to wealth.
Chioma has won various awards and accolades for her work at RecyclePoints, including the LEAP Africa Social Innovator Award 2017 and the Finalist for the 2018 Pritzker Environmental Genius Award by the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).
