[1][3] Thelma Ekiyor received her MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Imperial College London, UK, and holds a law degree with LLB Honours from the University of Buckingham.
The organization focuses on collaborative conflict prevention and peacebuilding, provides courses on these issues, and partners with other actors in the hope of establishing "a platform for dialogue", and sustainable peace and development in the region.
[14] Through her connections with WANEP, Ekiyor received support and funding for her idea of creating a women-focused and women-led pan-African organization that would focus on including women in peace and negotiation processes.
She brought the idea to WANEP and assembled the first training group, and the peace-building manual she relied on when she taught us--the book full of exercises now being used throughout the conflict resolution movement--was something she'd worked on for years.
Along with Leymah Gbowee and Ecoma Alaga, she hoped to transform WIPNET into an organization that operated independently from WANEP, so that the initiative would not be "a women's network controlled financially by men".
[20] Ekiyor is the co-founder and CEO of Afrigrants Resources Ltd, an organization that focuses on finding business solutions that address social problems, with an emphasis on under-development and women's financial inclusion.
In 2010, UN Women called for collaboration between civil society, the private sector, and governments in pursuit of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, which pushes for gender equality and female empowerment.
[25] In 2010, Ekiyor was appointed the first Executive Director of the TY Danjuma Foundation (TYDF), which focuses on improving access to health care and education to those who live in the Taraba State,[26] a region in North East Nigeria.
[27] In 2020, Ekiyor was appointed chairperson of the Micro, Small and Medium-sized businesses' division of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA).
The annual award, granted by the African Democratic Institute (ADI), followed the United Nations (UN) theme for World Humanitarian Day to nominate those who inspire humanity.