The Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ), through its Natural Resources and Extractives Programme (NAREP), has selected nine journalists across Nigeria for its flagship NAREP Oil and Gas Media Fellowship.
This fellowship aims to advance natural resource journalism in Nigeria. It is designed to train and build journalists that can effectively report and analyse the oil and gas sector by equipping them with the tools and resources they need.
Following the organisation’s call, PTCIJ received 1,429 applications from journalists and non-journalists across the country. Out of these, seventeen journalists were shortlisted and nine of them have been finally selected from across 8 media organisations following interviews by an internal selection committee.
The selected journalists underwent a three-day intensive training which introduced them to the oil and gas sector. The training started on the 2nd of March and ended on the 4th of March.
The participants were trained by experts on a range of issues including but not limited to revenue management and distribution in the oil and gas sector, the impact of the management of oil and gas on the quality of life of Nigerians, laws and regulations in the oil and gas sector, review of the under-recovery regime, use of the freedom of information act, data presentation and analysis, making sense of the figures in reporting the oil and gas sector among others.
After this training, the fellows will be engaged for a total of three months during which they will work with mentors and will be required to provide at least two stories per month. The fellowship comes with a benefit of 100,000 Naira as a monthly stipend, radio appearances, among others.
“Oil and gas sector operations in Nigeria have traditionally been opaque with little or no transparency on the part of the government. This lack of openness has led to zero accountability, mismanagement of funds, revenue leakages, and above all, the inability of the government to meet its financial obligation and to raise the quality of life of Nigerians,” Akintunde Babatunde the Manager of the Natural Resources and Extractive Programme said.
“To respond to these challenges of access to information in the oil and gas sector, the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism is organising this flagship NAREP oil and gas media fellowship,” he added.
“Through the fellowship, the organisation plans to combine the tools of data aggregation, civic technology, and investigative journalism to advance transparency and accountability in the extractive sector,” he said.
