PREMIUM TIMES names Oladeinde Olawoyin Business Editor

The management of PREMIUM TIMES, Nigeria’s foremost investigative news outfit, has announced the appointment of Olawoyin Oladeinde as the Business and Economy Editor of the newspaper.

Mr Olawoyin succeeds Ini Ekott, a pioneer member of staff, who exited the organisation at the end of 2022, after 11 years of meritorious service.

“Oladeinde is an exceptional journalist and writer,” Managing Editor Idris Akinbajo said of the appointment. “We trust in his ability to carry on excellently well from where Mr Ini Ekott stopped and to ultimately take our business reporting to a new level.

“In the years he has been here, he has demonstrated the capacity to break barriers and set new standards. We are confident he will bring these to bear on this new assignment.”

Reacting to his appointment, Mr Olawoyin said, “‘Nigeria is at a major crossroads in its efforts to engender growth, pull people out of poverty and deepen socio-economic development.

---

“The media, therefore, has an important role to play in ensuring that the nation realises its potentials. I am quite confident that the new role would help me contribute my quota towards the development of the nation.”

THE MAN OLADEINDE OLAWOYIN

Mr Olawoyin’s work at PREMIUM TIMES focuses on issues around oil and gas, business, finance, agriculture, economy, power, maritime, and development. He is a multiple award-winning journalist, who has been nominated for and won several awards and fellowships.

He bagged his National Diploma and Higher National Diploma certificates in Mass Communication from The Polytechnic Ibadan in 2008 and 2011, respectively. He also graduated with First Class from the Department of Mass Communication at the University of Ilorin, where he finished as the department’s best-graduating student.

In 2017, he was nominated in the journalism category of The Future Awards Africa, held in Lagos. In 2018, he was a recipient of the West Africa Media Excellence Awards (WAMECA), held in Ghana, as well as the Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Awards, held in Lagos.

In December 2018, alongside other young journalists across Africa, he was named “Global Goalkeeper” by the Gates Foundation at an elaborate ceremony in South Africa, in recognition of his reporting of the global goals.

In October 2019, Mr Olawoyin was among 12 finalists from around the world shortlisted for the 2019 Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award. He also clinched the big prize as the 2019 Capital Market Reporter of the Year at the PwC Awards for Excellence in Financial Journalism. In December 2019, he was also among three winners of the African Media Development Foundation (AMDF) Awards, held in Kaduna.

In 2020, he was among finalists selected from across Africa at the Sanlam Award for Excellence in Financial Journalism ceremony, held in South Africa.

Mr Olawoyin has attended courses on finance, economy, oil and gas and capital market reporting in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and other parts of the world.

He is a 2018 recipient of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting (WSAIR), a 2018 fellow of the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), a 2019 fellow of the African Science Literacy Network (ASLN), a 2020 recipient of the Climate Tracker’s Journalism Fellowship, a 2021 Fellow of the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) ‘In The Name of Religion’ fellowship, among others.

Last October, Mr Olawoyin emerged as the Business Reporter of the Year at the West African Media Excellence Awards (WAMECA), held in Accra, Ghana. Mr Olawoyin was also a finalist in the 2022 editions of the DAME and PwC awards held in Lagos.

Founded in 2011, PREMIUM TIMES has grown to become one of the most respected and reliable news media in the world.

In addition to a Pulitzer Prize (which its reporters share with ICIJ colleagues who worked on the Panama Papers), its journalists have also clinched the Global Shining Light Award, the One World Award and numerous other local, national, and international awards in the platform’s 12-year history.