Meet The Author

Mfon Ekong Usoro has extensive experience as a shipping lawyer and a maritime administrator with an avid interest in research, trade law, supply chain and transport, and speaking at international and domestic conferences. She is the pioneer and past Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency and the immediate past Secretary General of the Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control for West and Central Africa. She was, for several years an officer of the Nigerian Maritime Law Association (a national chapter of the Comite Maritime International).

Usoro is a member of the Governing Board of the International Maritime Institute of Nigeria, set up by the Nigerian Navy, and is an Independent Non-Executive Director of First City Monument Bank and The Infrastructure Bank. Mfon Usoro is the Vice-Chair of the International Bar Association Bar Issues Committee on International Trade in Legal Services.

Usoro obtained her LL.M in Maritime Law from the University College London, BL from the Nigerian Law School, LL.B (Hons) from the University of Buckingham, United Kingdom and B.Sc (Hons) Sociology from the University of Calabar, Nigeria. She is a recipient of national honours - Chevalier de l’Ordre du Merite Maritime, a national honour of the Republic of Cote D’ Ivoire, 2015 and Officier de L’Ord de Mono, a national honour of the Republic of Togo, 2002. She has been honoured by her State of origin, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, with the Productivity Order of Merit Award in 2022 and Merit Award in 2006. She is a practicing maritime lawyer and the Managing Partner at Paul Usoro & Co.