Uchenna Jennifer Eze Biography 'BellaNaija CEO'

Uchenna Jennifer Eze professionally known as Uche Pedro is the Founder/CEO of BellaNaija, a media tech company focused on lifestyle, entertainment and advocacy. The media brand, BellaNaija has established a loyal following across BellaNaija.com, BellaNaija Weddings and BellaNaija Style.

Uche was born and raised in Nigeria where she finished her primary and secondary school education. She holds a Bachelors degree with Honors in Business Administration (HBA) from the prestigious Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario in Canada where she graduated with distinction in 2006. In 2020, she graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School with a Masters in Public Administration. 

Her Journey to Blogging.

Prior to the creation of BellaNaija, Uche worked for Shell Canada, Cadbury middle East & Africa Unit in the UK, and Cadbury in Nigeria. She founded BellaNaija in 2006.

According to her, the idea for establishing BellaNaija came while she was studying for her undergraduate degree at the Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, Canada. She had a two-week holiday and soon got bored. This inspired her to start something that represented this exciting young vibe in the country when she came to Nigeria and observe the growing improvements in fashion, entertainment, and business. BellaNaija in its early form featured scanned magazine articles, pictures and interviews of Nigerian fashion personalities. Interestingly, Uche started blogging anonymously and did not reveal her identity until BellaNaija began to have over 1 million hits every month. BellaNaija.com has grown to host over one million new hits per month and has won numerous awards including the Outstanding Contribution to Fashion Communication Award at the 2010 Africa Fashion Week held by Africa Fashion International (AFI) in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Her Early Life.

On July 26, 1984, she was born in Maiduguri, Nigeria, to the family of Mr and Mrs Eze.

She has two siblings, Stephanie Eze and Nkechi Christine Eze.

Her Personal Life.

On 16 June 2012, Uche married Bode Pedro, a son to the former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Femi Pedro. She gave birth to a set of twins April 9, 2015.

Her Net Worth.

Uche Pedro’s estimated net worth is valued at around $4 million. Due to the numerous visitors she has on her blog, she earns a lot from Google AdSense, direct adverts, sponsored posts, and wedding features.

Other Involvements.

Asides BellaNaija, Uche is passionate about impacting her community and nurturing the next generation. She is the founder of #BNDoGood - an impact -driven initiative which consistently supports a wide variety of non-profits and social impact organizations including LEAP Africa, Slum2School, Django Girls, Junior Achievement Nigeria and a long list of others.

In 2018, Uche co-founded PVCitizen, an initiative to encourage millennials and Generation Z to register to vote and become active citizens. In November 2018, Uche received an ELOY Award for Innovation/Invention, reserved for a woman who has used her skills to create innovative ways to solve problems and also invented solutions to different challenges.

In addition she was recognized at the Frown Awards by UNICEF/UNFPA for her efforts toward the abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation in Nigeria.

Uche served as a host for the TEDxLagos Spotlight event in August 2018.

Nominations and Awards.

Uche Pedro has been nominated for and has received not less than 22 awards since she started her journey as a blogger.

In 2010, Uche Pedro won Outstanding Contribution to Fashion Communication Award and “The Future Awards Africa” for Young Media Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013 and many other awards.

She also featured on the Oprah Winfrey show “Beauty Around the World”, in February 2010 alongside Jessica Simpson and Lisa Ling.

In 2013, Uche won The Future Awards Young Media Entrepreneur of the Year.

She also won the Creative Industries Awards Creative Industries Awards for Bloggers in 2015.

In 2016, she was awarded with the Kids’ Choice Awards Best African Blogger.

She is a Fellow of TEDGlobal and a Nigeria Leadership Initiative associate NLI Associate

In March 2019, Uche was honoured with the Forbes Woman Africa New Media Award for her innovative impact on media in Africa.

She was listed in the second publication of 100 Most Influential African Women in 2020 by Avance Media.

She is on Twitter @bellanaija, Instagram @Uchepedro. Her website is Bellanaija.com.

 


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