Dataphyte Nigeria is planning a virtual data journalism training on the 20th of August 2020 for twenty journalists across print and broadcast media. This decision stems from Dataphyte’s vested interest in public sector accountability and good governance in Nigeria and her extractive sector.
In recent times, the Federal Government, ministries, departments and agencies have been gradually publishing their budgets, procurement and audited financial reports as part of their fiscal transparency and accountability programme; in line with the Nigerian Open Government Partnership (OGP) campaigns.
In line with this, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) published its audited financial statements for 2018 online on Monday, June 15th. The published audited financial statement was the first since forty-three years of its operations.
Having been on the wrong end of criticisms, several viewed this act as progress. Prior to this, several reports had maligned the government-owned oil firm for conducting the country’s oil business in opacity. And although NNPC opened their books, we can’t read or use them as they are not in open data formats.
Hence, it became imperative to organise this training due to the low number of media engagements centred on these audited financial statements. The training will make journalists understand the financial statement and demand accountability through data-driven reporting of NNPC’s financial activities. Further, it will ensure a collective effort by journalists to highlight anomalies in the financial management of the subsidiaries of NNPC.
Trained journalists will subsequently use skills gained to report critical issues within the financial statements of the state-owned oil firm. These reports will drive the demand for accountability on the financial operation of NNPC’s subsidiary companies operating within and outside the country. Also, the reports will provide important advocacy and accountability insights to the civil society and government agencies, including the National Assembly.
Signed by Joshua Olufemi Founder/CEO