Investigation on COVID-19 conducted by Dataphyte has been shortlisted for global data journalism awards – Sigma Awards.
The shortlisted story by Aderemi Ojekunle revealed how agencies of Government inflated the price of hand sanitisers, face masks and others in a COVID-19 procurement deal running into millions of dollars. The story used data from the Nigerian Government’s Open Data Portals and other visualisation tools.
In February 2021, Dataphyte’s data report also emerged as one of the winning entries in a global award in COVID-19 reporting organised by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). The entry emerged third under the Transparency, Crime and Corruption category out of 672 entries from 25 countries.
The entry was part of a total of 141 projects shortlisted this year from 35 countries.
Of the 141 shortlisted data journalism stories, six were from Sub Saharan Africa, 39 from Europe, 32 from Asia, 18 from Latin America, North America, 44, and two from Oceania. The shortlisted reports were from 90 large and 51 small organisations.
Only three data journalism reports were shortlisted from Nigeria.
Speaking about the news, Dataphyte’s Founder, Joshua Olufemi, commented that while it’s too early to celebrate, the shortlist is a recognition of great hope for Data Journalism in Nigeria.
In its second year, Sigma Awards celebrates the best data journalism from around the world. According to the organiser, the competition aims to empower, elevate and enlighten the global community of data journalists.
“Our pre-jury of experts has spoken and selected the best projects from all entries submitted to the 2021 competition. “Together, they represent the best data-driven work of the past year,” the organiser said on the competition’s website.
The Sigma Awards competition was created by Aron Pilhofer (Temple University) and Gina Chua (formerly Reginald Chua, Reuters), with support from Simon Rogers (Google), Marianne Bouchart (HEI-DA), and Kuek Ser Kuang Keng (HEI-DA). The Google News Initiative supports it.