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A PREMIUM TIMES report, which traced the evolution of Nigeria’s interbank transfer, won the Instant and Inclusive Payment System category at the 2025 West Africa Media Excellence Conference & Award.
The organisers of the award, the Media Foundation for West Africa, announced this at the ceremony, held in Accra, Ghana, on Saturday.
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The special category, sponsored by the AfricaNenda Foundation, examined reports on the inclusion of instant payment systems.
Speaking on the significance of inclusion, Bery Dieye, Communications Officer for AfricaNenda, highlighted its crucial role in the development of payment systems.
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She added that journalists are vital in bridging the gap in the payment system.
The winning report titled “From 3-day wait to per second transaction: How bank transfers work?” examined the development of Nigeria’s banking infrastructure and payment systems.
It explained how the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), alongside its NIBSS Instant Payments (NIP) platform, changed the inter-bank system and enabled real-time electronic fund transfers.
Bakare Majeed, the journalist who authored the report, was a member of the newspaper’s National Desk until February 2025.
He, alongside Folashade Ogunride, a member of the investigation and data desk, were the two PREMIUM TIMES journalists shortlisted for the award organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA).
Other winners
There were 26 finalists altogether, and 11 of them were Nigerian journalists from different media organisations, including Mr Bakare and Ms Ogunrinde from PREMIUM TIMES.
The MFWA said this year’s edition received 793 entries from more than 600 media outlets across 15 West African countries.
The organisers said they received 335 entries from Nigeria, 101 from Ghana, and 92 from Burkina Faso.
Nigerian journalists scooped six of the nine WANECA categories.
HumAngle’s former Investigations Editor, Kunle Adebajo, emerged as the West Africa Journalist of the Year and winner of the Illicit Financial Flow category.
Jemilat Nasiru and Ibrahim Mansur of The Cable emerged as winners in the Environmental Reporting category, while Faruk Shuaibu of Daily Trust won in the DPIs and DPGs Reporting category.
Other Nigerian winners include Theophilus Adedokun of the National Record in the Extractive Sector category, and Abdulrasheed Hammad of Pen Press in the Telecommunications and ICT Reporting category.
About Bakare
Mr Majeed, a trained economist, has extensive experience covering politics, governance, transition energy, digital public infrastructure, and anti-corruption. Many of his legislative reports have helped shape reforms, including groundbreaking anti-corruption exposés.
READ ALSO: PREMIUM TIMES journalist, others shine at Sanlam Awards
In 2023, he covered the Hajj exercise in Saudi Arabia and has extensive experience reporting on elections across the country. He was part of the Yiaga Africa 12-person election observation team that covered the 2024 Ghana presidential election and is a recipient of the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Journalism Fellowship 2024.
Mr Majeed’s stories on digital public infrastructure and payment systems have helped open public discourse on this critical sector.
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