CHINAZA DUKE NWOSU

Chinaza Duke Nwosu is a PhD candidate at Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS), University of Manchester, where his research examines the impact of digital platform work on labour rights and decent work standards in Nigeria's gig economy. Funded by the prestigious AMBS scholarship scheme, his doctoral work addresses urgent questions about worker protection in Africa's rapidly expanding platform economy at the intersection of employment law, digital transformation, and social justice.

Chinaza brings years of specialized legal practice to his academic pursuits. As Legal Counsel and at Compos Mentis Legal Practitioners in Nigeria, he handled over 120 legal processes and 40+ cases from inception to judgment, achieving a 95% success rate in disputes resolution, including labor disputes. His landmark victories include defending Ecobank in Lucky Okperi v. Central Bank of Nigeria & ECOBANK, establishing the first Nigerian indigenous authorities on banks' rights to terminate customer relationships. He successfully applied ILO standards in cases from the National Industrial Court to the Supreme Court of Nigeria, including Happy Uche v Axxon Energy and the Nwanya v Energia Ltd litigation series. He won the landmark case of Juliet Abosede Johnson v Ecobank, where the Court adopted his framework defining fixed deposit transactions in the Nigerian banking sector, establishing the first judicial definition of fixed deposit accounts in Nigeria and setting a precedent for the banking industry nationwide.

He established and led the Medical Law Practice Unit at the firm, introducing a new practice area that he grew from inception and successfully managed, demonstrating his entrepreneurial vision and ability to build specialized legal services in emerging areas of healthcare regulation.

His corporate practice encompassed governance, compliance, and sustainability initiatives across the oil, gas, and banking sectors. He officiated in over 50+ corporate meetings, prepared 100+ board resolutions, and developed diversity and inclusion policies for over 15+ companies. As secretary to multiple Host Communities Development Trust Boards (HCDTs), he advised upstream petroleum operators on corporate social responsibility under Nigeria's Petroleum Industry Act, conducted NEEDS assessments, facilitated MOU renewals between oil companies and host communities, and trained community board representatives on the new regulatory regime. He negotiated collective bargaining agreements that reduced industrial disputes by 40% and developed compliance frameworks that improved worker retention by 30%. As Company Secretary and General Counsel to companies and start ups, he drafted over 50+ contracts annually, developed the compliance registers, and assisted in recruiting numbers of staff while optimizing compensation structures.

Chinaza served as an Executive Officer (Work Coach) at the UK Department for Work and Pensions, where he interpreted and applied labour market policies to support job seekers, gaining firsthand insight into welfare-to-work frameworks and the practical challenges of employment support systems in developed economies. Earlier, he tutored Labour Law, Legal Method, Corporate Law and Contracts Law at Nnamdi Azikiwe University (2014-2018), facilitating over 160 tutoring classes that resulted in a 20% improvement in student performance and helped 100+ students secure internships or job placements.

His academic credentials include an MBA with Distinction from Coventry University (2024), where he received the Course Tutor's Prize as overall best-graduating student, and an LL.B (Second Class Upper Division, CGPA: 4.3/5.0) from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, where he graduated at the top of his class. He qualified as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in the top 5 percentile of Bar examinations. His MBA studies were funded by the highly competitive Niger-Delta Development Commission International Scholarship.

Chinaza has contributed to interdisciplinary research as a research assistant on multiple PhD-level systematic reviews spanning health and social sciences, including studies on community health workers' retention in Nigeria, barriers to undergraduate research participation in sub-Saharan Africa, digital health interventions for youth, and family planning utilization among people living with HIV. He has also served as a project manager, coordinating complex multi-stakeholder initiatives. His published scholarship appears in journals, academic law reviews, and professional legal platforms, covering alternative dispute resolution, petroleum regulation, forensic evidence in criminal trials, and judicial reform. He holds certifications from the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria, Duke University School of Law (Fintech Law and Policy), University of Pennsylvania (Intellectual Property Law; U.S. Medical Law and Ethics), and the Dispute Resolution Center of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce.