The Next Generation Investigation Journalism Fellowship (NGIJ), an initiative of Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), which began on September 4, 2023, has concluded with the graduation of all ten fellows following three months of training to cover financial crimes in Ghana and around the world.
The training, which aims to equip young journalists with investigative journalism skills, took the fellows through a variety of trainings – including fact-checking videos, pictures and claims, interviewing skills, utilising the Right to Information law, using various AI tools, writing an in-depth story and data journalism
It was dubbed ‘The role of the media in progressive taxation, domestic resource mobilisation and the fight against illicit financial flows in Ghana’.
As part of the fellowship, all 10 fellows produced several investigative stories in groups and individually which were published on The Fourth Estate and Fact-Check Ghana respectively.
Speaking at the closing ceremony, Executive Director-Media Foundation for West Africa, Sulemana Braimah, expressed his appreciation for the fellowship and commended fellows for their dedicated focus.
“We have been at this for the last three months, with a view of being able to at least orient and build capacity and enhance understanding of issues regarding illicit financial flows and questions around tax injustice and domestic revenue mobilisation; and it is great that we have been able to stay together and focus on the objective for the last three months.
“I believe that the results and impact of this fellowship are perhaps what we will expect from you hereafter,” he added.
Mr. Braimah asked the fellows to operate with integrity in order to bring about good change through their reporting, as well as ensure that their facts are correct in order to avoid misinformation and disinformation.
Also at the ceremony, Programmes Director for Media, Peace and Sustainable Development-Media Foundation for West Africa, Dr. Kojo Impraim, noted that the fellowship is “to empower and groom young, dynamic fresh students from institutes of journalism or any journalism school, and also practicing journalists in their mid-career – or anyone who is in the media sector but very young and very passionate to go into the area of investigative journalism”.
Training sessions were provided by partner organisations such as the UK-based Finance Uncovered, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) to sharpen the fellows’ understanding of issues; such as identifying red flags in financial statements and understanding illicit financial flows.
The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) is funding the initiative through OXFAM in Ghana.
