Maryam Uwais

Maryam Uwais, MFR is a Senior Partner and founding partner of Primera Africa Legal, with over 40 years of experience spanning human and socio‑economic rights, legislative drafting, arbitration, banking and insurance law, Islamic banking, mergers and acquisitions, and capital market operations. She is a distinguished human rights advocate and commercial lawyer.

She has advised the Central Bank of Nigeria on banking and BDC licensing, undertaken legislative drafting for the Nigerian Law Reform Commission, and acted for federal and state governments in landmark public interest litigation against tobacco and pharmaceutical multinationals. She spearheaded a ₦40 billion private placement for a major financial institution, served as lead solicitor on a ₦4.95 billion state bond offer, and advised on a major cement company’s mandatory tender offer. She has also worked extensively as a legal consultant to the World Bank, UNICEF, UNODC, UNDP, USAID, and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa.

Maryam founded the Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative, an NGO empowering women and children in Kano. She served as Special Adviser to the President of Nigeria on National Social Investments (2015‑2020) overseeing cash transfer, school feeding, N‑Power, and Government Empowerment programmes reaching over 13 million Nigerians, and later coordinated the At‑Risk Children’s programme. She served on the African Union Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (2008‑2013), the Presidential Advisory Council, and the Northern Governors’ Committee on Reconciliation, Healing & Security.

She holds an LL.B (Hons) from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (1980), a B.L. from the Nigerian Law School (1981), an LL.M from Ahmadu Bello University (1985), and numerous certificates including from Harvard Business School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is a recipient of the national honours Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) and Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), and has received multiple awards for human rights and social impact. She is a member of the International Bar Association, the Nigerian Bar Association, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK), and an Associate Fellow of the Institute for Islamic Banking & Insurance, UK.