3 Nigerians win CNN/MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year awards

Three Nigerian journalists were among the 17 lucky winners at the 2016 CNN/MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year awards, which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday night.

The trio of Yemisi Akinbobola, Ogechi Ekeanyanwu (pictured together) and Paul Bradshaw, of IQ4News/Premium Times won the sports category, and Chika Oduah, a freelance reporter at the African Media Initiative, won the DowTechnological and Innovation Reporting award.

Ekeanyanwu now works with TheCable as copy editor.

However, Nigeria’s other finalists, Adedayo Oketola and Folashade Adebayo (both of Punch Newspaper), Eromo Egbejule of Ventures Africa and Veronica Onuchi of TVC News Africa, were not so lucky.

While Oketola lost the Energy and Infrastructure category, Fola lost to compatriot Oduah.

Also, Egbejule lost the Young Journalist category to Ancillar Mangena of Forbes Africa, South Africa, while Onuchi lost the Health and Medical reporting category to Veronica Kwabla of TV3 Network, Ghana.

Asha Ahmed Mwilu and Rashid Idi of Kenya Television Network, Kenya, won the overall prize and will jointly share the honour of being the CNN/MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year — until late 2017.