Mrs Maryam Uwais is an accomplished lawyer of over 42 years’ experience, with a rich and diverse career spanning private legal practice, civil society, as well as the private and public sectors.
Maryam has worked with the Kano State Government, the Nigerian Law Reform Commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria. She continues to advise internationally renowned companies/ establishments and various Governments and Agencies, on legal matters (commercial transactions), as well as around regulatory and compliance issues in government processes, structures, and strategies. In the private sector, she has served on the Board of Stanbic IBTC Bank, on the Thisday Editorial Board (Leaders & Co) and is currently on the Lagos Business School Advisory Board. She is also serving on the Boards of Sydani Initiative for National Development, L&Z Integrated Farms and is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Social Protection Forum, a coalition of Nigerian social protection practitioners and civil society organizations.
She was a member of the African Union Committee of Experts on the Rights & Welfare of the Child for 5 years (2018- 2013) and was subsequently appointed on the (then Acting) President Goodluck Jonathan Presidential Advisory Council, where she served as Deputy Chair to the Social Sector Committee. In 2009, she founded the Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative, an NGO that continues to empower women and children in education, healthcare, and empowerment in Kano State and environs. In 2012, Maryam was appointed member of the Northern Governor’s Committee on Reconciliation, Healing and Security, to curb the insecurity challenges then emerging in the Northern region.
More recently, Maryam served as Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments from November 2015 to May 2023, during which period she pioneered 4 broad Federal Government National Social Investment Programmes (NSIPs), which effort involved the development of the National Social Register for poor and vulnerable households (counting at over 65 million Nigerians currently), cash transfers, the home grown school feeding and the government enterprise and empowerment programme (specifically MarketMoni and TraderMoni). As supervisor and coordinator of the NSIPs, Maryam experienced firsthand the financial inclusion challenges faced, especially by women, since the programmes impacted directly on over 13 million (and indirectly over 42 million) vulnerable Nigerians between November 2015 and October 2019).
Maryam also Chaired the Social Transformation Cluster of the Nigerian Medium- and Long-Term Development Plans (2025 & 2030), which comprised of 9 technical working groups, consisting of the Poverty Alleviation & Social Security Group (which she coordinated, directly), and included issues relating to women, youth, water, education, health, sports, identity and cross-cutting matters. She subsequently initiated and coordinated the At-Risk Children’s program, which focused on addressing the challenges of marginalized youth and reducing the numbers of out-of-school children around the country.
Maryam has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, international acknowledgments of distinguished service. These include being one of the recipients of the Thisday Awards of Nigerian female achievers in February 2012. In 2015, she was the National Human Rights Commission Awardee for her Outstanding Contributions in the Advancement of the Rights and Welfare of Women & Children. She was selected as one of the 2014 McNulty Prize Laureates of the Aspen Institute, Colorado, USA for the impact of IWEI in rural communities. In 2019, Maryam was named the ‘Public Social Intrapreneur of the Year’ by the Schwab Foundation (an affiliate of the World Economic Forum). In May 2022, she was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s ‘Goalkeepers’ not-for-profit. She is the recipient of the National Honour of the ‘Officer of the Order of the Niger’ by President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, having been awarded the ‘Member of the Order of the Federal Republic’ by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR in 2001.
Having worked as a consultant for prominent institutions such as the World Bank, UNICEF, UNODC, UNDP, USAID, and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, for such a long period, Maryam has garnered the reputation of a professional, and an expert in the humanitarian and development fields. She has also written extensively on matters, deriving from her vast experience of serving in the legal and social development sectors.