Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards 2012 - Finalists Announced

Diageo, the world's leading premium drinks business, today announced the finalists in the 2012 Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards. The winners of the ten categories will be announced during the Awards ceremony in June. 

The Awards, which were launched in 2004, recognise the fact that excellent business journalism plays an important role in promoting Africa as a destination for investment and supporting enterprise development. Moreover, Diageo believes that better and more accurate reporting helps to create a fair and responsible environment in which to do business.

Hundreds of entries were received from a record 27 countries across Africa and the rest of the world. A panel of eminent judges will now select the winners of each category. The winners will be announced at a gala ceremony, which will be held in London on Thursday, 28 June 2012.

The finalists are (in no particular order):

BEST INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) FEATURE
Herman Chinery Hesse Diane McCarthy (CNN African Voices, South Africa)
Is Google good for Africa? Gemma Ware (The Africa Report, France)
China's Telecoms and Wireless Drums for Africa Hejuan Zhao (Caixin Century Magazine, China)  

BEST FINANCE FEATURE
Unclaimed Assets Henry Githaiga (Citizen Business News, Kenya)
Mobile Banking Wanjohi Kabukuru (African Banker, Kenya) 
Eco-Pesa VoucherJosephat Kioko (Baraka FM, Kenya) 
 
BEST INFRASTRUCTURE FEATURE  
Mombasa Port Causes Regional Anger Wanjohi Kabukuru (African Business, Kenya)
Kivu Gas David McKenzie and Fabien Muhire (CNN Marketplace Africa, Kenya)
Releasing the Floodgates of Finance Nicholas Norbrook (The Africa Report, France) 

BEST AGRIBUSINESS / ENVIRONMENT FEATURE
Ghana's Gold Anas Aremeyaw Anas (Al Jazeera, Ghana)
Farming Zimbabwe Richard Fenton-Smith and Martin Plaut (BBC Radio 4 Crossing Continents, UK)
Emerging Threats to East Africa Tourism and Natural Heritage Wycliffe Muga (East African Flyer, Kenya)  
 
BEST TOURISM FEATURE
Rare Bird Found Edward Nyarko (Ghana Television News, Ghana)
South African commercial shows Nigeria still in search of global brand identity Ella-Marcelle Olamiju (National Mirror, Nigeria) East-3-Route Nadira Peer (CNBC Africa, South Africa)
 
BEST BUSINESS NEWS STORY
South Sudan: land of opportunity, if you don't mind risk Alexander Dziadosz (Reuters, UK)
Cashless Policy: Experts lament low awareness among artisans, market women Adedayo Oketola (Saturday Punch, Nigeria)
When donors are stoned, the poor pay price Frazer Potani (Africa News, Malawi) 

BEST BUSINESS FEATURE
Business in Sierra Leone Robert McKenzie and Justin Rowlatt (Business Daily on BBC World Service, UK)
Why Kenya will find it hard to navigate through current economic storms in 2012 Christine Mungai (The East African, Kenya)
Rising from the Ashes: Rwanda's Bold Vision for Development Jonathan Rosen (World Politics Review, USA)  

BEST NEWCOMER
Ashlea Harvey (CNBC Africa, South Africa)
Drew Hinshaw (The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic; USA)
Eleanor Whitehead(This is Africa, UK)
 
MEDIA OF THE YEAR  African Business (UK)
Smart Farmer (Kenya)
The Africa Report (France)

JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Oliver August (The Economist, UK)
Robyn Curnow (CNN, South Africa)
Peter Guest (The Wall Street Journal, Wired; UK) 

The winners will be decided by a prestigious international judging panel, which brings together experts from the field of media and business, as well as pan-African initiatives and organisations. The 2012 judges are:

Ms. Zeinab Badawi, International news broadcaster
Dr. Shantayanan Devarajan, Chief Economist of the World Bank's Africa Region 
Mr. Stephen King, Partner at The Omidyar Foundation
Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu, former CEO of New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) Baroness Shriti Vadera, G20 Advisor and former UK government minister in the Cabinet Office, Business Department and Department for International Development
Mr. Paul Walsh (Chair), CEO of Diageo

Commenting on this year's awards, Nick Blazquez, President, Diageo Africa, said, “This year's finalists represent the strength and diversity of African business journalism. This decade is rightly being recognised as Africa's as investors and other observers understand in greater detail the risks and opportunities of doing business in the continent. 
With entries this year received from a record-breaking 27 countries, we are pleased to see that investigative journalism on African business issues continues to develop and that an increasing number of outlets and reporters are covering the continent from a business perspective. Our finalists represent the best of business journalism on Africa and we look forward to celebrating their achievements at the ceremony in June,” continued Blazquez.