ASHENEWS reports that winners have emerged for the 2024 Aisha Wakaso Award for Young Female Journalists.
The winners, who were announced during the award ceremony organised on Wednesday in Minna included Salamatu Abubakar who came first, Ruth Moses, who emerged second and Habeebah Abdul, coming in third place.
Speaking during the event, the organiser of the award ceremony and Special Assistant to the Niger State Governor on Print Media, Aisha Wakaso said that the annual event is aimed at empowering and encouraging young female journalists who are the future of journalism.
Wakaso, who tasked young journalists to sit up to the responsibilities that accompany the journalism practice stressed the importance of hard work and dedication.
In his keynote address, the founder of the Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation (HCAF), Baba Dzukogi tasked young journalists to abide strictly by the tenets of the practice which demands that they become judges over the government and its activities.
A team of three judges chose six finalists for the award from a pool of 12 applicants.
The judges included a retired journalist with the Niger State Broadcasting Corporation (Radio Niger), Sa’adatu Alhassan, The Managing Director of Ultimate FM Minna and CEO of Lina TV, Celine Moses as well as a Lagos-based journalist and media trainer, Joke Kujenya.
Abubakar, a graduate of Mass Communication from IBB University, Lapai, received N100,000 reward and a journalism book.
The second and third winners received N60,000 and N40,000 and a journalism book respectively.