Star campaigner takes on corruption 💪 and waste on Nigerian 🇳🇬 docks

Hadiza Bala Usman shot to prominence as a leading figure of the "Bring Back Our Girls" campaign, a driving force of what became a global movement to secure the return of 276 schoolgirls abducted by terror group Boko Haram.

Usman, 41, was internationally acclaimed for her role, and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari rewarded her with a fresh challenge: reform of the country's unwieldy port network, as the first female managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

"We noted a level of inefficiency attributed to a certain level of corruption," she told CNN, emphasizing the need to close off "access and avenues where there would be a request for a gratification by public officials."

"If you want to compare the ports today to 17 years back, of course today is like 100 times better," says Mohamed Fouani, managing director of the Fouani Group, which distributes LG products.

With traffic through the ports set to increase in the coming years, which will prove critical to Nigeria's economic recovery, Usman and the NPA face a challenge to reform the sector at speed.

UCJ, UNILORIN.