Lagos: Aisha Gambo, a Senior Correspondent with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), has been selected for the sixth Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP) fellowship. The fellowship, which was launched in 2017, is organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ). It aims to equip female journalists with the skills to champion the cause of improved leadership status of women in the news, newsrooms, and society.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Motunrayo Alaka, Executive Director and CEO of WSCIJ, stated that the Report Women! programme had helped to increase the quantity and quality of reports on issues affecting women and girls in Nigeria. She highlighted that over the past decade, WSCIJ had trained 537 journalists across Nigeria and Ghana, supported 136 stories and 138 leadership projects, published six research pieces on women’s representation in the media, and produced six documentaries.
The centre also launched a female experts’ source guide and engaged newsrooms on women’s leadership in the news and newsrooms. Alaka noted that since its introduction in 2017, the Female Reporters Leadership Programme had produced 86 fellows across five cohorts and driven efforts to place more women in leadership positions within newsrooms and news. The sixth edition of the FRLP Fellowship will provide participants with intensive training and mentoring to champion the cause of improved leadership status of women in the news, newsrooms, and society.
The fellowship and the broader Report Women! News and Newsroom Engagement project have been supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation since 2021. Alaka added that the fellowship was designed to engage the management and staff of news media organisations in Nigeria, and eventually Africa, to increase the representation of women in news coverage, newsroom leadership, and as news sources.
Gambo is one of the 12 participants who made the shortlist out of a competitive pool of 160 female applicants. Other beneficiaries of the programme include Melony Ishola, Juliet Buna, Bilkis Lawal, Rasheedat Iliyas, Temitope Obayendo, Mary Agidi, Dana Zagi, Chigozie Victor, Christiana Alabi-Akande, and Gloria Attah.