TOP MARITIME WOMEN IN NIGERIA
Hadiza
Bala-Usman
H
adiza is a woman who has
taken Nigerian maritime
industry by storm. Prior to
her appointment as the managing
director of Nigerian Ports Authority
(NPA), she was not known in the
industry. But her appointment as
NPA boss gave her the opportunity
to prove that a woman can do
better what a man can do, as she
has proved skeptics wrong, and
turned things around in NPA,
bestriding areas where her male
predecessors feared to tread and
reversing abnormalities and
wrongs of the past in the nation's
economic gateway.
Her learning ability and
management capability has
stunned the maritime
industry.Since her appointment in
July 2016,Hadiza has accelerated
the port reforms of 2006, and
combated the deeply-entrenched
corruption in the government
agency. She has brought
transparency in NPA budgets and
financial management. She has
Hadiza has made history as the first
female managing director of NPA in its 63
years of existence. She is also poised to make
history in her pursuit of an aggressive 25-year
port development plan that will provide a clear
overview of Nigerian port system which is vital
for guided port development.
killed monopoly in the port
industry in order to achieve one of
the objectives of the port reforms
which is to bring efficiency in port
operations through competition.
As a social and political activist,
Hadiza has been championing
women empowerment. This
passion led her to take a leading
position in the #BringBackOurGirls
campaign of the kidnapped Chibok
girls.
Hadiza has received many awards
in the areas of governance, girl child
education and women emancipation.
She is the Vice President (African
Region) for the International
Association of Ports and Harbours
(IAPH). Early this year, she was
elected the Vice chairman of the
Facilitation Committee of the
International Maritime Organization (IMO) for the period
2019-2020.
Hadiza has made history as the first female managing director
of NPA in its 63 years of existence. She is also poised to make
history in her pursuit of an aggressive 25-year port development
plan that will provide a clear overview of Nigerian port system
which is vital for guided port development.
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