TWO investigative reports commissioned by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, have been announced winners in two among the four categories in the 2019 PwC Media Excellence Awards.
Kelechukwu Iruoma, a freelance journalist, and Bayo Akinloye, editor of Sahara Reporters, had the best entries in the Tax and SMEs reporting categories respectively, as declared at the award ceremony held in Lagos on Friday night.
Published in August, Iruoma’s report exposed how thugs forced traders in various markets across Rivers State to pay multiple illegal taxes and how this affected their businesses.
Titled “Still Loading”, Akinloye’s winning entry was published in December and had shed light on how “the curse of slow internet speed undermines investments and developments” in Nigeria.
Oladeinde Olawoyin, a reporter with Premium Times, won the Capital Markets Reporting category with his report: What Islamic finance products can do to Nigeria’s capital market, infrastructural growth.
And Businessday’s Isaac Anyaogu was declared winner of the Business and Economy Reporting category with his report: Dying in instalment: How lead battery recyclers are poisoning Nigerians.
All four winners each walk away with plaques and cash prizes of N500,000.

According to PwC, a network of firms that renders assurance, advisory and tax services, the annual awards celebrate “excellence in business reporting in Nigeria”.
The judges were on the lookout for well-organised research and insight, journalistic integrity, originality and resourcefulness, and relevance to the Nigerian situation.
Other shortlisted journalists were Femi Owolabi and Odogwu Emeka Odogwu in the Business and Economy Reporting category; Ayoade Olatokewa and Chijioke Nelson in the SMEs Reporting category; Gbenga Ogundare and Chinedu Asadu in the Tax Reporting category; and Teliat Sule and Oluseyi Awojulugbe in the Capital Market Reporting category.
'Kunle works with The ICIR as an investigative reporter and fact-checker. You can shoot him an email via aadebajo@icirnigeria.org or, if you're feeling particularly generous, follow him on Twitter @KunleBajo.