WanaData

WanaData is a network of Female Journalists, Data Scientists and Designers working on changing the digital media landscape by producing and promoting data-driven news and applying digital technologies in their storytelling.
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WanaData is a Pan-African network of female journalists, data scientists and techies working on changing the digital media landscape by producing and promoting data-driven news while applying digital technologies in their storytelling. It is an initiative of the pan-African federation Code for Africa which is an impact accelerator, and a collaborative pan-African federation of civic data and civic technology organizations.

WanaData started off as Naija Data Ladies in 2017, there are 3 chapters in Lagos, Abuja and Benin City in Nigeria. Based on the success of the community in Nigeria, the initiative has been replicated and has grown to 4 countries across Africa with chapters in Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. There are chapters being planned in Morocco, Senegal and Ghana.

We use technology and data to build digital democracies, and to empower citizens with actionable information. We have a strong journalism focus, believing that media is a powerful information and mobilization agent. Our projects range from building big technology platforms and citizen-focused tools, to producing and funding tech and data driven investigations.

Adie Vanessa Offiong

Adie Vanessa Offiong is an award-winning journalist with Daily Trust newspaper in Abuja, Nigeria. Although she is the head of the Arts & Entertainment desk, Vanessa also has an interest in reporting development issues with a human angle and solutions-based approach, using data/statistics in reporting a range of topics including women & children, environment, agriculture, health and women in business among others.

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Bukola Adebayo

Bukola Adebayo currently a senior producer, CNN Africa Digital, is a former science journalist with the Punch Newspaper in Lagos, Nigeria. She has over a decade experience reporting on health and development issues. Bukola, a fellow of the International Institute of Journalism, Berlin was awarded the Science Journalist of the Year by the Nigerian Academy of Science in 2013 for her story on on the sale of blood among Nigerian youth. She has worked on development reporting projects with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the African Solution Journalism Network. In addition to local and international training in journalism at the Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa; Bukola is a graduate of Biochemistry. Links to stories:

Bukola Afeni

Bukola Afeni is a multimedia freelance journalist, that presently works with Newsdayonline. She previously worked at Core TV news, Pilot newspaper, Leadership newspaper and presenter of an entertainment programme with Raypower radio, Abuja. She is passionate about women and children’s right,as well as developmental journalism. She presently works as a media consultant for some non governmental organisation in the area of health intervention. She holds a postgraduate diploma from International institute of Journalism, Abuja.

She was the 2017 ICFJ Migration and Climate Change fellow of the in Nigeria.  

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Chika Oduah

Chika Oduah is an awarding-winning Nigerian-American independent journalist who works as a television news producer, writer, photographer and correspondent. Her 15-year reporting career in the United States and across Africa has included work with the International Center For Journalists, Al Jazeera, CNN, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, France24 and other outlets. Oduah is known for her human-focus ethnographic reporting style with an anthropological approach in reporting African stories. Link to stories:

Funke Fayemi

Funke Fayemi is a self-motivated and hardworking Radio Journalist who joined Voice of Nigeria in 2004. She has distinguished herself in various capacities both on the local and international scenes. Her productions has earned her awards, accolades as well as being commissioned to package programmes on diverse topics. Her interest ranges from health issues to women and to politics. She is a Fellow of the Journalist to Journalist, USA, a Tobacco Fellow of Health-E Online News, South Africa, Member, International AIDS Society, Switzerland, Member, International Broadcasting Association, London and more. Olufunke is a well- travelled journalist who has attended many trainings, conferences workshops. Link to stories:

Hannah Ojo

Hannah Ojo is an award-winning journalist with The Nation, Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper. A data enthusiast with a passion for development and social justice issues, Ojo has worked with Code for Africa to deliver data driven reports on water, sanitation and hygiene in Nigeria’s biggest cities. She is a recipient of the 2017 Newscorp Fellowship hosted by The Times of London and The Wall Street Journal and an alumnus of the U.S. Department of State Foreign Press Centers reporting tour on human trafficking. A recipient of the 2018 Reham Al-Farra (RAF) Journalism Fellowship hosted by the United Nations Department of Public Information, Ojo is committed to leading digital innovations in African newsrooms. She is an ICFJ Truth Buzz Fellow. An alumnus of the  Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; Hannah is easily drawn to topics in development, technology, arts and literature.

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Chioma Obinna

Chioma Obinna is an multiple award-winning , senior medical and health journalist with Vanguard Media Limited,Lagos, Nigeria.Her core interests include investigating and writing news, and feature articles on science and health. She was presented with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research’s, Media Award for Medical Research Reporting 2012.Chioma is also the President of Health Writers Association of Nigeria, a group comprising over 40 Science and Health journalists. She is presently participating in a two-year fellowship with World Population Reference Bureau under its 2017 Women’s Edition-Africa programme.

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Ogechi Ekeanyanwu

Ogechi Ekeanyanwu is an award winning independent journalist. She pioneered the development desk at The Cable and conducts in-depth and solution based reportage on development issues in Nigeria. She is also a passionate child and women’s rights advocate and has worked as a consultant with MIND, an non-governmental organisation that focuses on urban poor women.

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Olorunnisola Abe

Sola Abe is a journalist with woman.ng, an online magazine for Nigerian women. She is also an avid contributor at yourcommonwealth.org, a website created and crafted by young people, students and emerging youth leaders from Commonwealth countries. Sola has also worked for EchoNews, and leading newspaper The  Punch Nigeria. She holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos.

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Olubunmi Yekini

Olubunmi Yekini is a versatile and proficient content provider, script writer and Reporter with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria- Radio One.  Her work experience span over 10 years, working as a Producer /Reporter on health and environment issues.In 2008 she was commissioned by IRIN Radio International to report stories around Maternal and Child Health. In 2009, She was commissioned as a reporter by The Abidjan – Lagos Corridor Organization – ALCO, an organization saddled with the responsibility of reducing HIV/AIDS transmission along the corridors of Five West African states- Nigeria, Republic of Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo and Ghana. In 2009, she was again commissioned as a reporter on the same project this time by The West Africa Newsmedia and Development Agency-WANAD, Republic of Benin. In 2010 she became the Focal point, Nigeria for WANAD. Bunmi  has won several awards including the ‘Red Ribbon’ Award of the Journalists Against AIDS, JAAIDS- Nigeria for the best Radio Report on HIV/AIDS and Nigeria Media Merit Awards – NMMA, Radio Reporter of the year.

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Tobore Ovuorie

Tobore Ovuorie is an investigative and health journalist interested in human rights abuses, corruption, health and regulatory failures. She became the first journalist to be receive the first ever health reporter of the year award by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism for her story on fake yellow fever certificates.She was until September 2016 a senior investigative journalist with the Premium Times in Abuja. She is the host of Every Woman Listen, a radio show addressing issues to do with women. She also trains journalists on how to investigate and report on human trafficking, health, human rights abuses.

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Yemisi Adegoke

Yemisi is a graduate of the Arthur L Carter Institute of Journalism at New York University. Her writing has been featured in media organizations including: The Guardian (UK), The Independent (UK), The Voice, Media Diversified and TRUE Africa. She also served as assistant producer on Ade Adepitan: Journey of My Lifetime, a feature length documentary on polio in Nigeria starring paralympian Ade Adepitan for Channel 4 (UK). She is also a multimedia journalist for CNN and a broadcast journalist with BBC Africaca and a broadcast journalist with BBC Africa.

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Flourish Chukwurah

Flourish Chukwurah is a freelance multimedia journalist based in Lagos, Nigeria. She is breaking new grounds in journalism in the country by pioneering the use of 360 videos and virtual reality for storytelling in Nigeria. She is passionate about human interest and policy-related stories that are driven by data. One of her first projects was a 360 video of Makoko, an immersive experience of the largest slum community in Nigeria and the second largest in Africa. Flourish earned her first degree in Mass Communication from Covenant University, Nigeria. After which she went on to obtain a Masters in Broadcast and Digital Journalism from the prestigious Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, New York

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