Winners of the 2022 pan-African (re)insurance journalism awards announced
7th edition of the awards sees a return to in-person format with a ceremony bursting with ‘firsts’
After two years of virtual events, Continental Reinsurance Plc has announced the winners of the 7th pan-African (re)insurance journalism awards at an in-person event in Lagos, Nigeria, on Friday night. One of the many firsts of the evening was the inclusion of Arabic-language media in the awards which helped to attract entries from a record-breaking 22 African countries.
The category winners are:
CategoryWinnerCountryBest Entry, Arabic CategoryAtif Fahim MahrousEgyptMaher Fadl HannaEgyptBest Entry, French Cateogory Ouedraogo Patinema OumarBurkina FasoBest Entry, Broadcast Category, (English)Destiny Abanyem OnyemihiaNigeriaBest Entry, Print Category (English)Tunde AjajaNigeriaBest Entry, Online Category (English)Felix Dela KlutseGhanaDr Femi Future Talent AwardFraterne NdacyayisengaRwanda
Launched in 2015, the awards continued to attract a rising number of entries (84 up from 67) from an increasing number of African nations (22 up from 16), amongst them for the first time South Sudan and Egypt. After announcing the shortlist in June, and careful deliberation by an independent jury assessing relevance, style and impact, the winners were invited to Lagos, Nigeria, for a fully sponsored trip to receive their awards.
The winners will also receive an exclusive year-long mentorship to develop their insurance sector reporting skills further. This is in addition to cash prizes.
Reflecting on the range of countries that entered this year’s awards, Head of the Jury, Michael Wilson, commented: “The awards celebrate individual talent, but we also need to remember that each of the winners is part of an editorial team with a shared goal. By opening the awards up to more journalists from more countries we are turning the awards into a platform for collaboration and cooperation across Africa.”
Speaking on the occasion of honouring its past Group Managing Director by introducing the Dr Femi Future Talent Award, Continental Re’s Managing Director/CEO, Mr Lawrence Nazare, highlighted the company’s pan-African commitment to the awards: “Over the last seven years, the awards have highlighted the fact that the world is not risk free and that insurance, in as much as it can, is a step towards managing that uncertainty we are all currently experiencing. We believe that by honouring the media industry’s future talent we can create a distinctly African narrative for the sector, and that is why the awards will always be the pan-African awards.”
The awards ceremony was held in conjunction with a dedicated farewell dinner for four distinguished Directors of the Company, including the Chairman, Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, who recently retired from the Board of Directors of the Company.
