Winners of 2018 Pan African Re/Insurance Journalism Awards Announced
Nigerian journalist, Odimegwu Onwuwere wins award
A Nigerian journalist with Nigeria’s Africa Prime News, Odimegwu Onwuwere has bagged the Pan African Journalist of the Year Award for the 2018 Pan African Re/Insurance Journalism Awards sponsored by Continental Reinsurance.
A press release by Ceciliah Kimuyu, Senior Account Manager at Continental Reinsurance PLC, said there were three categories of the awards but Onwumere emerged the overall winner.
Onwumere's winning article titled, Africa emerging new frontier in the reinsurance markets investigates how foreign insurers that once rebuked Africa due to economic instability are now swarming for businesses on the continent because the sector is becoming alluring and dynamic due to unswerving GDP growth.
Otiato Guguyu, a Business and Data Journalist with Standard Group Kenya won the Best Re/ Insurance Industry Feature Article for his story, Business of protecting wealth from drought that talks about how an insurance scheme that was introduced in the dry regions of Kenya is cushioning farmers from losses; while Adenike Popoola, Chief Correspondent of Nigerian’s The Punch newspaper emerged the winner for Best Re/Insurance Industry Analysis and Commentary for her article, Foreigners taking over Nigerian insurance industry, which discusses how the recapitalisation trend is transforming the insurance industry and its expectations in the future.
At the same time, Gareth Stokes, a seasoned financial journalist working with Commercial Risk Africa (CRA) in South Africa won a special award in recognition of his exemplary contribution to Re/ Insurance journalism and was recommended to become a judge in future editions. Gareth emerged the Pan African Journalist of the Year in 2017 awards.
The winners were announced at a Gala dinner held during Continental Reinsurance’s CEO Summit held on April 9th 2018 in Swakopmund, Namibia.
Speaking at the award ceremony, Dr. Femi Oyetunji, Continental Reinsurance’s Group Managing Director noted, “The Pan-African Re/Insurance Journalism Awards are an extension of our continued commitment to advance excellence in the sector. I am glad this year’s entries not only improved in quality, but they also came from a wider range of countries, and with more diverse insurance topics being featured by journalists. We will be including two new categories in next year’s Awards – for broadcast and online entries, and I would like to encourage TV, radio and online journalists to participate.”