Isaac Anyaogu, BusinessDay’s energy correspondent has emerged the biggest winner in the second edition of the PwC Media Excellence Award 2017 held at Oriental Hotels in Lagos on October 6, after emerging finalist in three categories.
Anyaogu won the first prize in the SMEs category with his entry titled: ‘Pennies for a piece of the sun’, a story that explored how smart companies are commoditising solar and aiding small business in a country where power supply is inadequate.
He also won the second prize in the Tax category for his story titled: ‘Can Nigeria plug tax leakages in the digital economy?’ which explored the need for the tax authorities to catch up as more transactions are moving online. His story on Apapa roads, a crying shame, which took a swipe at the lack of will to fix one of the most important roads in the country, won third prize in the Business & Economy category.
Other winners on the gala night include Collins Nweze from Nation newspaper in the tax category, Victor Ekwealor of Techpointng in the Business & Economy category and Nkiru Nnorum from Vanguard newspaper claimed top prize in the Capital markets category.
According to Uyi Akpata, PwC Nigeria country senior partner, the award is a promise made to journalists in a media capacity training workshop three years ago.
“Why a professional service firm organising a media award you may ask, our purpose is to build trust in the society and the media is a partner to help achieve this objective,” said Akpata.
Akpata further said, “We hope the award will be a motivation for journalists to improve their report and take interest in business reporting which has the capacity to improve society.
Taiwo Oyedele PwC partner and head of tax practice said the entries this year were three times the number received last year and the quality of the entries were remarkably better.
Oyedele said that overall, PwC Nigeria received 123 entries but some of them did not meet requirement and were eliminated. It was now down to 83 entries. Business and Economy category had 45 entries, Tax category 11 entries, SMEs 12 and Capital markets received the rest of the entries.
Anyaogu, who was a second runnerup in the Citi Journalistic Excellence Awards, held in June this year, continues a tradition of BusinessDay reporters winning laurels for excellent business journalism. Anthony Osaebrown, editor, Patrick Atuanya, Caleb Ojewale, Odinaka Anudu, Teliat Sule and Chuka Uroko have all won prestigious awards on the BusinessDay platform.
