Corruption Watch’s investigative journalist, Francisca Enchill (Ativoe), has been nominated for the 2023 Norbert Zongo African Prize for Investigative Journalism (PAJI-NZ).
Francisca sees her nomination as a great recognition of her work having been part of 20 journalists nominated from a tall list of great journalists from 29 countries who filed for the award this year.
Francisca Enchill entered the award with her stories, Pay Or Die! The Agony of Pregnant Women in Hospitals, a story which exposed how health facilities where charging National Health Insurance (NHIS) card holding pregnant women illegal fees for services and medications covered by the NHIS.
The hospitals denied the pregnant women urgent healthcare because they failed to pay the illegal fees. The practice over the years has cost the lives of women and their babies.
She also entered her story, Money Over Human Lives, Rot At DVLA Exposed!
A story that exposed staff of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) who take money from driving license applicants and in exchange give license to unqualified applicants who avoid going through the mandatory examination to certify them as qualified to drive.
Francisca Enchill is Ghana Journalists Association Award’s first and still only female winner of the Investigative Journalist of the Year award.
After examining the applications, the PAJI-NZ 2023 Jury deliberated on the basis of the quality and relevance of the investigations submitted for its assessment; the potential impact of the investigations; the journalistic approach; and the presentation of the work. By category, this deliberation is as follows:
Print category
– Babacar Gueye Diop from Senegal
– Bembablin Doumbia from Mali
– Boudal Ndiath from Senegal
– Gbenga Samuel Salau from Nigeria
– Ibrahim Manzo Diallo from Niger
Online category
– Christian Locka from Cameroon
– Hayatte Abdou from Comoros
– Manasseh Awuni from Ghana
– Momar Dieng from Senegal
– Pierre Claver Kuvo from Togo
TV category
– Amy Sissoko from Côte d’Ivoire
– Folashade Ogunrinde from Nigeria
– Francisca Ativoe from Ghana
– Ibrahim Karanja from Kenya
– Manasseh Awuni from Ghana
Radio category
– Azil Momar Lo from Senegal
– Kelly Kanda from Mali
– Loukoumane Worou-Tchéhou from Benin
– Marthe Akissi Kra from Côte d’Ivoire
– Zefania Zulu from Zambia
The awards ceremony in each category as well as the prize for the best production, all categories combined (the SEBGO D’OR), is scheduled for Saturday 21 October 2023 during a Gala evening tbh in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on the sidelines of the 10ᵉ edition of the International Festival of Freedom of Expression and Press (FILEP).