Mr Dayo Oketola of The Punch won the Energy category of the first edition of the continental Zimeo Excellence in Media Awards held in Johannesburg, South Africa on Thursday.

The Head of News and Politics, Saturday Punch won the award with his story titled, “Power failure: Nigerians burn N17.5 tn fuel on generators in five years”

Oketola defeated Reuters’ James Karuga and Kindo Noufou of Burkina 24 in Burkina Faso to clinch the award.

Sunday PUNCH’s Bayo Akinloye won in the Business and Finance category with his report titled: “Bittersweet banking: World of Nigeria’s mobile traditional bankers.”

Akinloye edged out another PUNCH reporter, Bukola Adebayo, and Stanis Nkundiye from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A journalist from TELL Magazine, the fourth Nigerian nominated for the prestigious award, Anthony Akaeze, beat two journalists from Burkina Faso to emerge winner in the Infrastructure category.

Zimeo Excellence in Media Awards is organised by African Media Initiatives with 16 winners named on Thursday as part of this year’s African Media Leaders Forum.

The awards received a total of 557 entries from 41 countries across the continent, producing 57 finalists in 19 categories drawn from 17 countries.

According to a statement issued by the AML, the awards categories focused on key topics that are critical to quality of life issues in Africa such as Agriculture and Food Security, Health, Climate Change, Infrastructure, and the Maritime Economy.

AMI’s senior consultant and judging coordinator, Wangethi Mwangi, said, “The quality of entries was impressive, and we believe the finalists represent a growing cadre of professionals who are committed to making an impact through journalism. This inaugural edition of the Zimeo awards has also been an eye-opener and will help us in identifying the gaps in media’s coverage of development issues on the continent.”