THE International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, Abuja, in collaboration with the Public and Private Development Centre, PPDC, is embarking on the second phase of the Open Contract Reporting project which aims at building capacity for Nigerian journalists to scrutinize budgetary and procurement issues, with a view to promoting accountability and transparency in the public sector.

The project, funded by a two-year grant from the Macarthur Foundation, is part of its On Nigeria Project, which seeks to reduce corruption by supporting Nigerian-led efforts that strengthen accountability, transparency, and civic participation.

The first phase of the project, executed with a three – year grant from MacArthur Foundation produced 40 journalists learning about procurement laws and how to scrutinize contracting process and investigate procurement fraud. This phase of the project, which targets the media at local levels, will involve providing training for over 100 Nigerian journalists in the six geo-political zones over the next two years.

Unlike the first phase which focused on the national level, the second phase will focus on journalists in 36 states who will concentrate on issues affecting people at the grassroots. The training workshops will be organized regionally and at least three journalists from each state will be shortlisted to benefit in the project.

The training curriculum will cover key areas including Digital Reporting, Investigative Journalism, Data Journalism, Procurement Law, Freedom of Information Act, FOIA, Contract Tracking and Monitoring, among others.

The project will afterwards provide small grants for the journalists to work with The ICIR and appointed mentors to undertake investigative reporting projects on budget, procurement and contracting processes in critical sectors of the economy, including Power and electricity, Education, Water and the Environment and Health.

The project is open to practising journalists in print, electronic-TV and Radio, and new/digital media who are based in Nigeria. Freelance reporters who are interested in investigative journalism can also partake in the project.

Deadline for application and nomination for the training is February 24, 2020.

Interested journalists can apply via The ICIR platform here.

Female journalists are strongly encouraged to apply.

Only shortlisted journalists would be contacted.

About ICIR
The International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, is an independent, non-profit investigative reporting news organization, which aims to use watchdog reporting to promote transparency and accountability in the public space.

With donor support, the Centre has successfully trained over 500 Nigerian journalists from newsrooms across Nigeria in Investigative and Data Journalism and supported over 500 investigative reports published in several news outlets within and outside Nigeria. Many of these investigative reports have won awards, nominations and fellowships owing to the impacts they contributed to societal and economic development.

About PPDC
The Public and Private Development Centre, PPDC, is a non-governmental organization that advocates for open data and transparency in procurement processes in Nigeria. With its work in the last 10 years, the PPDC has become Nigeria’s most respected procurement-monitoring agency.

The PPDC seeks to increase the participation of citizens in procurement governance in a way that prevents corruption and in the last 10 years worked actively on procurement governance issues.
To enable journalists to report more on procurement processes and link these to public services, PPDC uses the Budeshi platform to also empower reporters in linking expenditure to public infrastructure and services.

Abeeb ALAWIYE

Author Page

Abeeb Alawiye formerly works with The ICIR as a Reporter/Social Media officer. Now work as a Senior Journalist with BBC News Yoruba. You can shoot him an email via Abeeb.alawiye@bbc.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @habsonfloww