A valuation and risk specialist, Harriet Igherighe, has revealed how she has been surviving in the male-dominated technology market.

In Africa’s swiftly expanding digital economy, where startup valuations can swing in hours, capital decisions depend on real-time data, and investor confidence often rests on minute details.

This is where professionals like Igherighe come in, with her place in Africa’s technology and finance ecosystem not loud or flamboyant, yet it is unmistakably influential.

Her rise has coincided with the rapid expansion of the continent’s digital economy, a space in which valuations can shift within hours, investor sentiment can strengthen or weaken based on the smallest disclosure, and due diligence has become as critical as capital itself.

The accuracy and integrity of numbers now determine which companies survive, scale or collapse. In this landscape, the work of specialists like Igherighe has gained new weight. Many practitioners approach valuation as a mathematical process.

Igherighe, however, approaches it as an ethical one. She says that numbers tell stories only when the person interpreting them is willing to confront the truth behind what is presented.

Value anchored in values is how she describes her own approach. This way of thinking has defined her path in a sector still struggling with inconsistent governance, variable disclosure standards and evolving regulatory cultures.

Her reputation for precision was cemented during one of the defining deals of her career. It was a high-stakes tech acquisition involving multiple jurisdictions and a complex supply chain. Late in the night, a junior analyst on her team noticed an inconsistency in a supplier document. Instead of brushing it aside, she reopened the files and painstakingly reviewed each line. She has said that this is the point at which the real work begins.

Her review uncovered details that would later reshape the deal structure. The episode strengthened her standing not only as a leader but also as someone whose instincts for risk are both sharp and unfailing. Colleagues often describe her as the analyst who never uses authority to impose direction but earns it through accuracy and discipline.

Africa’s valuation terrain is changing fast, but has not achieved uniformity. Venture capital firms still contend with information asymmetry, incomplete or outdated reporting, fragmented supply chain data and varying local accounting cultures.

These gaps can distort valuations, increase exposure to hidden liabilities and weaken investor trust. In this environment, the role of a meticulous valuation specialist has become indispensable.

Igherighe’s method involves more than financial modelling. She combines operational due diligence, supply chain verification, and governance assessment to produce valuations that withstand global scrutiny. Her work demonstrates that valuation is not a spreadsheet exercise but a process of accountability. She often tells younger analysts that trust is a product of transparency, not optimism.

Her approach has been particularly valuable in cross-border transactions. During a manufacturing investment review, she noticed that material certificates from a supplier did not align with the pricing being offered. The price was significantly lower than what quality benchmarks would suggest.

Instead of letting the issue escalate into a confrontation, she led the team through a structured risk analysis that considered economic scenarios, potential legal liabilities, and long-term reputational costs. The result was a renegotiation that strengthened compliance obligations and preserved the long-term viability of the project.

In another transaction, this time involving digital infrastructure, she insisted on reviewing labour practices among subcontractors supplying server components. The site visits and document requests revealed governance issues that could have compromised the entire project in the years to come.

Her insistence on verification changed the due diligence framework and adjusted the risk profile of the deal. The investors later acknowledged that without her intervention, the project would have carried silent liabilities that would have surfaced only after capital had been deployed.

Her work has helped international investors understand the operational realities of the African market. The continent has a highly diverse regulatory landscape. Data protection laws differ from country to country. Procurement practices and corporate governance standards also vary. Global investors entering Africa increasingly rely on intermediaries who can translate this complexity into reliable assessments.

Igherighe has become one of those intermediaries. She guides foreign investors through local realities and also helps African founders align their operations with international norms. She stresses that foreign investment rests on trust and that trust is built on numbers that are honest, traceable and consistent.

Her track record spans fintech firms, digital infrastructure companies, IoT manufacturers and enterprise software providers. In one widely cited IoT hardware valuation, she conducted an unannounced site visit. She discovered that the company had switched from a high-grade circuit supplier to a lower-grade one.

The documentation submitted to investors did not reflect the change. Her findings forced a revision of the valuation model and led to a quality assurance process that investors later described as crucial to the deal. Despite these achievements, she works in a sector where male-dominated networks remain deeply entrenched.

Across Africa, women are still underrepresented in leadership roles in both technology and finance. Studies from global research bodies indicate that women hold approximately a quarter of roles in the tech ecosystem in sub-Saharan Africa, despite comprising nearly half of STEM graduates.

The funding picture also remains skewed. Reports covering African startup investment indicate that in recent years, only about ten per cent of total funding went to companies with at least one female founder. Historical data from the past decade shows that less than five per cent of total African tech funding went to all-female founding teams.

Male-only teams received the overwhelming majority. These patterns influence not only access to capital but also perceptions of competence in technical and financial domains.
Igherighe recognises the weight of these barriers. She has spoken about the subtle biases that women encounter, from assumptions about technical capacity to the higher proof thresholds imposed on their work.

Her response has not been to fight for space through force. Instead, she relies on clarity, evidence and an analytic style that aligns stakeholders without confrontation. Her calm leadership has made her a trusted presence even in high-pressure negotiations.

She often chooses to gather insight from places analysts rarely go. She spends time with factory floor supervisors, logistics coordinators and product engineers, believing that the truth of a business is often found in its operations, not in carefully prepared presentations.

This habit has given her a reputation for uncovering risks and opportunities that are invisible on paper. It also reflects her view that numbers and people are interconnected and that understanding both is essential to understanding value.

The impact of her work reaches beyond individual deals. Her insistence on governance, ethical sourcing and supply chain integrity supports broader economic reforms underway in different African countries. Many governments are pushing for responsible industrialisation and for more reliable institutional systems.

Analysts who demand higher standards indirectly strengthen these reforms by encouraging better business culture. Investors often note that her work helps African companies demonstrate credibility at a time when global capital is searching for stable and trustworthy partners. Her guiding idea that capital trusts where truth is consistent has become a quiet mantra within the networks she works with.

Aware that the continent needs more skilled analysts, she invests time in mentorship. She runs an informal teaching network she calls Risk Rewired. Through this platform, she organises workshops and one-to-one sessions for young professionals, particularly women who want to enter valuation and risk analysis.

She introduces them to real-world scenarios, teaches them to examine supplier documents line by line, and encourages them to understand compliance frameworks in practical terms.

She tells them that valuation is both a technical responsibility and a civic one because it shapes decisions that affect companies, workers and economies. She aims to create a generation of analysts who combine sharp technical competence with ethical clarity.