The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) has selected 12 female journalists for the champion building edition of its 2023 “Report Women! Female Reporters’ Leadership Programme (FRLP) fellowship.”

The fifth edition of the fellowship, which will commence with a three-day residential training in Lagos, will build the capacities of the female reporters to lead the cause for women as leaders in the newsrooms and expert-sources in news.

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The 12 reporters were shortlisted from 173 valid entries, with three from Zambia, Ghana, and Kenya respectively.

The Champion’s building activity is part of the Report Women! News and Newsroom Engagement project which is designed to engage the management and staff of news media organisations within Nigeria and eventually Africa and beyond to intentionally increase the representation of women in their coverage newsroom leadership and to engage more female experts as sources.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has supported the initiative since 2021. In addition to the training, the fellowship will include a three-month mentorship, virtual share-fairs, and the reporters will undertake investigative stories and leadership projects.

The WSCIJ initiated the Report Women! programme in 2014 to increase the quality and number of reports about girls and women in Nigeria. In 2017, it introduced the FRLP Fellowship to develop a network of female journalists prepared to lead the highest leadership roles in the media, learn and train others to mainstream girls and women in the news and be foot soldiers that challenge status quo and change the face of leadership in the newsrooms and news to be as female as they are male.

So far, 74 fellows have been inducted into the fellowship.