A PREMIUM TIMES journalist, Oladeinde Olawoyin, has emerged as the winner of the Business Category of the West African Media Excellence Awards (WAMECA).
Mr Olawoyin clinched the award at the sixth edition of the award ceremony held in Accra, Ghana, on Saturday.
The assistant editor and deputy head of PREMIUM TIMES’ business desk, won the award for his story – Inside the world of small businesses keeping Lagos night economy alive.
The organisers of the regional awards, Media Foundation for West Africa, had in July announced that 950 entries were received.
“Among the 950 entries received for 10 different categories include Human Rights, Investigations, Anti-Corruption, Health reporting and the two new categories, Women Empowerment, and Migration reporting, which were introduced for the Awards this year,” Kwaku Asante, Programme Officer, MFWA, said.
Mr Olawoyin was unveiled as one of the winners of the 10 categories.
The story published in 2021, touched on how Lagos, a top-night economy hotspot, is hampered by poor infrastructure.
A former PREMIUM TIMES journalist, Yusuf Akinpelu, also emerged a finalist in the environment category, won by Tessy Igomu.
Olatunji Ololade from The Nation newspaper won the Human rights category, Tessy Igomu from Punch newspaper won the environmental category as well as the overall prize while the Anti-Corruption reporting category was won by a freelance journalist, Adeola Oladipupo.
Other winners include Burkina Faso journalists; Nabole Ismael and Basseratou Kindo, Ghanaian journalists; Kwatey Nartey and Seth Boateng, and Guinea Bissau’s Darcico Barbosa.
Profile
Mr Olawoyin’s work at PREMIUM TIMES focuses on issues around energy, business, economy and development. He is a multiple award-winning journalist who has been nominated for and won several awards and fellowships.
He is a First Class graduate of Mass Communication from the University of Ilorin where he graduated as the department’s best student.
In 2017, he was nominated in the journalism category of The Future Awards Africa, held in Lagos.
In 2018, he was a recipient of the West Africa Media Excellence Awards (WAMECA), held in Ghana; as well as the Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Awards, held in Lagos.
In December 2018, alongside other young journalists across Africa, he was named “Global Goalkeeper” by the Gates Foundation at an elaborate ceremony in South Africa, in recognition of his reporting of the global goals.
In October 2019, he was among 12 finalists from around the world shortlisted for the 2019 Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award. He also clinched the big prize as the 2019 Capital Market Reporter of the Year at the PwC Awards for Excellence in Financial Journalism.
In 2020, he was among finalists selected from across Africa at the Sanlam Award for Excellence in Financial Journalism ceremony, held in South Africa. In December 2019, he was also among three winners of the African Media Development Foundation (AMDF) Awards, held in Kaduna.
Mr Oladeinde is a 2018 recipient of the prestigious Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting (WSAIR), a 2018 fellow of the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), as well as a 2019 fellow of the African Science Literacy Network (ASLN).
Last July, he was selected for the Climate Tracker’s Investigative Journalism Fellowship alongside 11 other journalists from different parts of Africa.
This January, Mr Oladeinde was selected as a Fellow in the ‘In The Name of Religion’ fellowship, an initiative that seeks to equip a network of trail-blazing African journalists with advanced digital skills and data journalism tools to improve the quality, quantity, and reach of objective fact-driven reporting on religious freedom issues, in ways that promote a culture of tolerance and respect for religious diversity.
The programme, an initiative of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), focuses on religious freedom in Nigeria and Sudan.
Mr Olawoyin was also a finalist in the PwC 2022 awards, held two weeks ago in Lagos.
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