The world Komla Dumor award by BBC News is looking for a new rising star in African journalism. This awards have been taking place for the past five years and are now on the 6th year. Journalists from all over Africa have been invited to go on and make applications for this award if they are interested. The major goal of this award, courtesy of BBC is to reveal new talent. It is an effort to show the world talents that have been under the shadow for ages. It is an exposer of the work of creative African journalists.
This awards are important to most journalists. The award winning journalist is awarded graciously and gets to send a week at the BBC headquarters in London. This is an opportunity for the journalist to acquire new skills and experience by working with the best journalists in the world. The application for this African award is already ongoing and it will officially be closed on the 16th of March the year 2020 at 23:59 Greenwich Mean Time.
The Start of the journalism competition award
This award was invented due to a Ghanaian news broadcaster, Komla Dumor who passed on in 2014 at the age of 41. Komla Dumor led to the introduction of this award due to the great service he offered to the BBC World News. The award started as an honor the memory of this exceptional Ghanaian broadcaster and to inspire other journalists to keep working and improving their skills. In 2020, the award will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa.
This year’s award will go to an eminent journalist who lives and works in Africa. An exquisite journalist with sufficient talent and skill. He needs to be good at using an optimum combination of powerful journalism skills and adequate talent in presenting African stories. The specific individual should also be one who is extremely ambitious. He should posses the potential of becoming a future star in the journalism field. Not only will the winner of the award spends a week at the headquarters of BBC in London but will also wins an opportunity to report a story from Africa which will be shared across the entire world.
The Award Winners since the start
Since 2015, there have been a number of people who have won the award across Africa. Some of the winners from 2015 to 2019 include:
- In 2015, the Komla Dumor award winner was Nancy Kacungira, a journalist from Eastern Africa, Uganda.
- Next, 2016, the Komla Dumor award winner was Didi Akinyelure from Nigeria.
- In 2017, the award winner was a Nigerian yet again, Amina Yuguda.
- In 2018, Waihiga Mwaura from Kenya won the Komla Dumor award.
- Currently, 2019, the Komla Dumor award is a Ugandan, Solomon Serwanjja.
All these winners got an opportunity to present on various topics in Africa. Solomon Serwanjja, last year presented on how people in Nairobi are battling to improve the quality of air in the city. This exceptional journalist looks forward to host a panel debate that will focus on African power. And how it will lead to economic growth without accelerating climate change. The BBC News will also conduct visits on various South African universities. This is with an aim of developing future journalists. And in relation to the work of Komla Dumor and aspire to become like he was.
Conclusion
The introduction of Komla Dumor awards is an inspiration to many journalists. They are inspired to work hard in order to become better journalists. This will lead to a great improvement of skills and experience in journalism. It will also lead to great exposer of African journalists and change the African journalism industry to the better.
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