Two Nigerian Journalists Win 2026 International Knowledge Journalism Awards
Two Nigerian journalists have been honored at the 2026 Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards, organized by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) in partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation.
The President of ICFJ, Ms. Sharon Moshavi, announced the winners in a statement issued on Friday in Lagos, describing the awards as a celebration of journalists whose evidence-based reporting has expanded access to reliable information about Africa while enriching Wikipedia’s knowledge base.
According to Moshavi, Nigerian freelance journalist Rakiya Muhammad clinched the first-place prize for her report, West Africa’s Borderless Women: Inside the Yoruba Sisterhood Linking Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, published by RM Times.
The award-winning story explores how Yoruba women from Ejigbo in Osun State have built thriving cross-border trading networks in Côte d’Ivoire, thereby strengthening economic opportunities and deepening cultural ties between the two countries.
Reacting to the recognition, Muhammad said the award had strengthened her resolve to continue telling authentic African stories that place women at the center of development, leadership, and social transformation.
“This recognition renews my commitment to telling authentic stories that spotlight African women as drivers of development, leadership, and positive change,” she said.
Moshavi also announced that Abiodun Adewale of The Punch received the second-place award for his feature, Breaking Boundaries: How Nigeria’s U-19 Women Are Rewriting Cricket History.
The report highlights the remarkable achievements of Nigeria’s Junior Female Yellow Greens and the growing prominence of women’s cricket in the country.
Kenyan journalist Angeline Ochieng of Nation Media Group earned a special mention for her report on former traditional birth attendants who now encourage hospital deliveries to help reduce maternal mortality in rural Kenya.
According to Moshavi, this year’s competition attracted 320 entries from journalists across 40 African countries.
She noted that journalism and Wikipedia play complementary roles, explaining that Wikipedia’s volunteer editors rely on credible, independent journalism to improve the platform, while journalists benefit from Wikipedia’s global visibility and reach.
“The awards recognize African journalists whose work is helping to strengthen the digital information ecosystem and expand public knowledge about the continent,” she said.
She added that the initiative was established to celebrate high-quality journalism that bridges knowledge gaps about Africa on Wikipedia and other trusted public information platforms.
Also speaking, the Wikimedia Foundation’s Chief Communications Officer, Anusha Alikhan, stressed the importance of stories told by Africans in creating a more balanced and representative global knowledge ecosystem.
She noted that the awards support efforts to close Africa’s knowledge gap on Wikipedia, where only about 3.7 percent of English-language articles focus on the continent.
Moshavi said the winners were selected by an independent panel comprising African civil society leaders, academics, Wikimedia volunteers, and representatives of both ICFJ and the Wikimedia Foundation.
SOURCE: NAN
