Uduak Daniel
A celebrated development practitioner and gospel singer, recognized for her sonorous voice and spectacular stage performances, Dr. Uduak Daniel, is among top women in Nigeria listed in Nigeria Women Annual: 100 Leading Women”, a biographical compendium on accomplished women leaders in Nigeria.
This year’s sterling list of Nigeria’s foremost women leaders is a mixed grill of tech experts, pastors, politicians, teachers, activists, development practitioners, and C-Suite corporate leaders and it includes notable women such as among others
Uduak holds a PhD in Human Genetics from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. She is a firm believer
in the fact that her roles and capabilities are God’s blessing and should be optimised, so she frequently describes herself as Jack of all her trades and master of all. She diligently and professionally gives her all to her roles as a family member, minister of the gospel, singer/songwriter, authour, performer, human geneticist, development practitioner and public health expert.
Her versatility and sense of commitment stems from her principled, loving and supportive background. An example is her music; call her an enigmatic song writer and a mesmerizing performer. Call her a psalmist. Call her a prophetic singer. Call her many things-in-one. She deliberately and artfully weaves the word (gospel) into her music. And what you see is a creative blend of the pulsating African rhythm and the classic flavour of soul: a marriage of inter-continental tangs of tunes. She has been a professional musician since 2002.
The same zest she has demonstrated in development practice since 1991 as a peer educator in the university. Over the years, she has built her capacity in multisectoral HIV programming. As a staff of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) since 2012, she served at the national and regional levels distinguishing herself as an HIV prevention expert and institutional memory of the programme before she resigned in 2022 as a Deputy Director to join the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). She continues to be a well- known name in the development space as a consultant in prevention, systems strengthening as well as Social and Behaviour Change (SBC).
Uduak has always been a firm believer in the role of family as a stabilising factor in life. She’s forever grateful to her parents, family, village, and friends for being safety nets in good and bad times. She’s been a strong believer of Christ since she was 16 and has remained grateful to God for using her to make family members believers.
Lately, she has made it a point of duty to be in touch with her two grandchildren and transfer family values even though highly itinerant. Uduak loves to travel, has visited 30 countries and hopes to visit more in the future.
“Nigeria Women Annual: 100 Leading Women in Nigeria”, is Nigeria’s most qualitative compendium that profiles outstanding women across different frontiers and they include innovators, barrier-breakers, activists, top bureaucrats, captains of industry, and celebrities.
“The Nigeria Women Annual: 100 Leading Women” is the premier qualitative profiling of phenomenal women in Nigeria who have contributed to the development of Nigeria and the world.
It is a gender-specific biographical compendium that responds to existing gender gaps in Nigeria’s biographical documentation and leadership.
Now in its eighth year, the current edition is said to be the most qualitative biographical profile on Nigerian female leaders in 2026
In a statement by the CEO of Profiles & Biographies, publishers of the book, Kammonke Abam, said, “in publishing this compendium every year, we envision that we will continue to contribute to gender equality and women empowerment advocacy efforts towards filling the yawning gender gap in the leadership of Nigeria”.
“As in the previous editions, the array of women who made the list this year all have stories that are inspirational; which we hope, will inspire readers, especially young girls and boys, who constitute our primary target”, he added.