Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, the Editor-In-Chief of African Eye Report, a leading Pan-African economic, business, banking and finance, mining and energy news website, has emerged the ultimate winner of the 2021 Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) Flamingo Awards.
He won the ultimate award in a row in 2019 and 2021. The awards did not come on in 2020 due to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
He beat stiff competition to win the overall Best Economic and Financial Journalist of the Year at the seventh edition of the IFEJ Flamingo Awards held in Accra.
Mr Kunateh’s award winning article titled: “Difficult Time For Health Financing System In Ghana”, which won the overall award cleverly demonstrated how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the country’s economy particularly health sector and what measures were put in place to overcome the crises.
He also was also adjudged the Best in Natural Resources category with an article titled “Responsible Mining: Where Does Ghana Stand?”
Prizes
He took home plaques, citations, Macbook donated by the World Bank. Mr Kunateh will also undertake an all-expenses-paid trip to the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in April this year, courtesy the World Bank.
Speaking shortly after was crowned the Overall Business and Financial Journalist of the Year 2021, Mr Kunateh advised his colleague journalists to always research before writing their stories.
According to him, researching on topics before writing will enable them to understand the topics very well thereby produce good stories.
He also used the opportunity to thank the management of IFEJ and the jury of the awards for the good work done.
Other winners
The winners include Maclean Kwofie of Graphic Business who won Business/Manufacturing category. While Edward Adjei Frimpong of B&FT won three awards.
The five-member Jury under the chairmanship of Professor John Gatsi, a renowned economist, said 36 total entries were received for all nine categories, but only seven categories qualified for awards.
The theme for the awards ceremony is “The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Business Resilience and Recovery in the Ghanaian Economy”.
Speaking on the theme, the guest Speaker, Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, a Medical Practitioner and a writer on social issues, said: “The shock from the Covid-19 pandemic has posed significant challenges to the Ghanaian economy and impacted countless businesses in the economy”.
The challenges according to him have come with both threats and opportunities. “Some sectors, such as health and information, have shown resilience by turning the threats into opportunities for transformation”.
While other sectors, such as tourism and entertainment, have been forced to adapt or have collapsed due to the crisis, Dr Sodzi-Tettey added.
“Recovery efforts for businesses must leverage the opportunities created by the pandemic for transformation, recovery and growth. These would include identifying innovative ways around risk assessment and decision-making, teamwork, business capacity, and organizational resilience”.
In a remark, the World Bank’s Lead Country Economist, Aurelien Kruse who spoke on behalf of the World Bank’s Country Director for Ghana, congratulated the organisers of the awards and the winners for their commitment to excellence in reporting on business and financial issues in Ghana.
In his words: ” To congratulate and to thank you because I depend and rely on your work every day to keep abreast of the developments in politics and the economy”.
Instructively, the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) was formed in 1990 to help develop the skills of journalists in business and financial reporting.
One of the objectives of the institute is to advance the study, development and application of improved financial and economic communication methods through appropriate hands-on approaches and platforms.
Over the past years, the Institute had lived up to this objective and positioned itself as an effective organisation that provides and promotes co-operation, common understanding and exchange of ideas in the field of economic and financial journalism.
This objective enabled members of the Institute to attend various workshops, seminars, roundtable discussions with captains of industry and commence as well as with government and non-governmental organisations on another various aspects of the economy.
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