Mrs. Maryam Uwais (MFR)

Maryam Uwais, MFR is currently a Consultant to the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, where she provides strategic direction and policy advice on social development, poverty, inclusion, and service delivery in Nigeria’s most vulnerable regions. In that role, she helps shape interventions aimed at scaling social safety nets, ensuring that large social programmes translate into sustainable livelihoods, employment, and capacity building, especially for youth, women, and underserved communities.

Previously, Uwais served (2015–2023) as Special Adviser on Social Investments to the President of Nigeria, leading national programmes including N-Power, National Social Investment Programmes, school feeding, cash transfers, and MarketMoni/TraderMoni. She has also practiced law (Principal Partner at Wali Uwais & Co), engaged in human rights advocacy, and worked with international development agencies (World Bank, UNICEF, OSIWA). Her portfolio emphasizes leveraging social programmes not just for relief, but as pathways to job creation, capacity development, and systemic empowerment in Nigeria’s most marginalized regions.