Six Journalists Win 2020 BudgIT Media Fellowship

LAGOS - Six Nigerian journalists from various news media have been named the 2020 BudgIT/Civic Hive Media Fellows.

The journalists are: Taiwo Adebulu, an investigative reporter with TheCable; Frank Ikpefan, Education and Labour reporter at The Nation; Osaruonamen Ibizugbe, Correspondent with ITV, Abuja; Babatunde Okunola, Content lead, Royal FM, Ilorin; Gbenga Ogundare, freelance investigative journalist and Kelechuckwu Iruoma, freelance investigative journalist.

Civic Hive is BudgIT’s civic innovation hub with commitment to raising civic tech leaders for transforming governance, social issues and creating intersections for civic engagements through technology.

In a statement, Civic Hive’s Manager Iyanuoluwa Bolarinwa said journalists with the best resumes and stories were selected from over 285 applicants by a panel of credible judges who are luminaries in journalism.

“This year’s edition will be focused on stories that will advance and drive citizen engagement on transparency, accountability and social issues around Gender Inequality, Health, Agriculture, Social Investment programmes and the extractive industry,” Bolarinwa said.

The BudgIT/Civic Hive Media Fellowship Programme started in 2017 and it is aimed at featuring journalists who would drive conversations and applicable thought processes to increase advocacy on budget access, project tracking, social justice, gender equality and anti-corruption, among others.

This programme has amplified the voices, ideas and data driven stories that have proposed solutions to advocacy issues to create a more egalitarian society that works for all.