In the transport and maritime sector, there are few women who can boast of a career as colourful as Mrs. Mfon Usoro. She clocked 60 years on Friday, June 12, 2020 and MMS Plus joins the entire maritime community in celebrating an amazon whose decades of exemplary service always availed the industry a veteran with penchant for excellence.
With a sterling 30-year career to her credit, she has nurtured a technical prowess that has earned her top appointments in regional governmental bodies and institutions on the continent. Usoro currently holds the dual positions of Secretary General of the Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control for West and Central African region (Abuja MoU) and Chairperson, Akwa Ibom State Technical Committee for the Realization of Ibom Deep Sea Port (TC IDSP).
Usoro holds a BSc in Sociology from the University of Calabar. She obtained her LL.B from the University of Buckingham, B.L from the Nigerian Law School and an LL.M from University College, London.
She was the pioneer Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA from August 2006 to May 2007 and currently she serves as Chairperson, Board of Directors of TIB Asset Management Ltd, a Non-Executive Director (Independent) on the Board of the First City Monument Bank (FCMB), amongst others.
Mrs. Usoro is an internationally acclaimed expert in Transport Laws and Project Finance. She leads the Paul Usoro & Co’s team in Maritime, Aviation, Project Finance and Energy matters actively participating in complex domestic and cross-border transactions.
With vast experience in legislative drafting and advocacy, Mrs. Usoro has drafted several landmark maritime legislations and regulations such as the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency Act, 2007 (NIMASA Act), the Council for the Regulation of Freight and Forwarding in Nigeria Act N0. 16 of 2007, the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act No; 5 2003 and their subsidiary legislations.
In all the legislations, she worked closely with the National Assembly and industry stakeholders through the various stages of conceptualisation, stakeholders’ consultations, drafting and defence of the Bills until passage into Laws.
Mrs. Usoro has diverse work experience and has advised multinational companies in several financing transactions.
She promotes financial independence, unity among women folk and encourages young ladies to accommodate some flexibility and note that career advancement and marriage are not mutually exclusive goals.
“It is possible to have a successful career, be a mother and a wife. If a sister finds that a desirable goal, do not be deterred by the obstacles along the way, stay on course knowing that other women have walked the path and so can you,” she emphasizes. She is a pride of the female folks in the transport and logistics sector in Africa.
She hails from Oku in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State and married to Mr. Paul Usoro.
