By Kevwe Ebireri

The International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, an independent, non-profit investigative reporting news agency, is receiving nominations for a training and reporting programme in Nigeria.

The project aims to provide 40 young reporters across several newsrooms in electronic and new/digital media with Investigative Journalism over the next two years.

The project which is spread over a period of two years and is funded by Ford Foundation, an international body that supports visionary leaders and organisations on the frontlines of social change worldwide, seeks to help journalists across newsrooms in the country conduct investigative reports on issues of transparency, accountability and good governance.

The first segment of the two year training programme which is broken into four modules will hold in May and editors of various media outfits are required to nominate a maximum of two candidates for the training exercise; nominees will however, go through a screening process to qualify.

Successful participants who emerge with the most plausible and impactful story ideas, would receive between $1,000 and $5,000 to cover reporting, travelling and other expenses and they would be expected to publish their reports in their news outlets.

According to the executive director of the ICIR, Dayo Aiyetan, the primary objective of the project is to help equip journalists in Nigeria with up – date – knowledge of Investigative Journalism as well as help cash strapped newsrooms to undertake critical watchdog reporting that can make government accountable to the people.

“First, we want to bridge the training gap in the Nigerian media, particularly as regards Investigative Journalism; and build a crop of committed, competent and well trained professionals doing critical reporting that can have an impact on good governance. But we also realised that we need to help the cash strapped newsrooms in which these journalists work with the resources to do serious investigative reporting,” he said.

Freelance reporters who are interested in Investigative Journalism can also partake in the project as long as they have a guarantee of getting their reports published in a news outlet

Deadline for the nomination of participants is April 30.

For more information on Ford Foundation visit their website.