Leading professional services firm, PwC Nigeria, has announced winners at the 2020 Media Excellence Awards. The award event, which is in its fifth year, held virtually in line with COVID-19 protocols on large gatherings.
The PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Media Excellence Awards celebrates and rewards excellence in business reporting in Nigeria in four categories, tax and fiscal policy, finance and capital markets, SMEs, and business and economy reporting. The competition is open to professional journalists in full-time employment or freelancers working in Nigeria who have produced a story that falls within the categories covered by the award and that is available on a platform whose primary audience is Nigeria.
“It’s been a challenging year no doubt with COVID-19 disrupting our lives in ways we never previously imagined. As a business with a deliberate strategy of making greater societal impact, we launched an initiative, tagged PwC Cares, to support businesses, governments and individuals in responding to the impacts of the pandemic and build resilience. Today’s event is an extension of that commitment to society and especially to this very important community of professionals who play a key role in the sustenance of our democracy and the advancement of society in general.
“For the past seven years, we have been hosting the annual capability enhancement workshop for journalists to equip reporters to perform their roles optimally and professionally. This, we believe, should be reflected in the quality of reporting, in the capacity of journalists to carry out research and investigations, in the independence of editorial judgments, and in their ability to use technology as an enabler,” said Uyi Akpata, country senior partner, PwC Nigeria, at the event.
The winners of the 2020 PwC Media Excellence Awards are Tunde Ajala of The Punch, who won in the Business and Economy Reporting category, for the entry “Dangerous cylinders: Needless deaths in Nigeria’s poorly regulated cooking gas sector (1 & 2).” Isaac Anyaogu of BusinessDay topped the SMEs Reporting Category, for the entry “A fistful of poisoned gold.”