PRESS RELEASE
DevReporting, an online newspaper established by Development Reporting Services Limited, is set to take off.
With its headquarters in Lagos, the newspaper said its interest is to promote informed discourse, balanced reporting, and comprehensive impact on development issues in Nigeria and Africa.
This is contained in a statement signed by the organisation’s Administration and Finance Control Manager, Omobayo Azeez.
Mr Azeez enjoined Nigerians, Africans, and its targeted global audience to visit its website and social media pages on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
This is as the organisation has announced Mojeed Alabi- a former Development Editor at PREMIUM TIMES, and Christiana Alabi-Akande, a former correspondent at Daily Trust Newspaper, as team lead/editor-in-chief, and managing editor, respectively.
According to the statement, as a niche platform, the newspaper intends to “disrupt the status quo with a unique style of covering development issues in Nigeria and beyond through four major projects of DevCinema, DevCheck, DevCast, and DevStats”.
“The details of these initiatives will be made public in the coming days but Nigerians and Africans should be prepared to witness firsthand rich exclusives, analysis and investigations on happenings within the development sectors, especially education, health, and humanitarian issues and how they affect the people,” the statement noted.
Why DevReporting?
The newspaper said as changes and needs of the people evolve, journalism’s response must also evolve, noting that the issues that deserve much emphasis in the media should be based on the different eras.
The statement further noted: “The truth is that when the fight against the colonialists was in vogue, the media did well; when the military incursions dominated the post-colonial era, journalism also played its part. But now that democracy seems to have been enthroned and the new challenges are the issues of poor leadership, corruption, and stark underdevelopment, journalism needs to refocus by significantly highlighting these issues in connection with the people’s survival. That is the vacuum DevReporting has come to fill”.
Appointments
According to the statement, as the pioneer development editor at PREMIUM TIMES, with records of different innovations and partnerships implemented to advance development reporting for the much-respected newspaper, Mojeed Alabi, as the co-founder of DevReporting, “is in the best position to drive the vision of the new platform.”
It said having reported the education sector for more than a decade, and serving as the chairman of the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria (EWAN) with a rich network of contacts, “Mr Alabi is primed to lead a team of change agents in development reporting on the continent of Africa.”
Mr Alabi, a 2005 graduate of English at the Obafemi Awolowo University and holder of Master’s certificate in Diplomacy and Strategic Studies from the University of Lagos, has won various journalism laurels including being a two-time winner of the coveted Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting.
On her part, the newspaper’s pioneer Managing Editor, Christiana Alabi-Akande, a holder of a postgraduate diploma certificate in Mass Communication, was the best graduating student in Mass Communication at the Federal Polytechnic, Kaduna, in 2008, where she had her Higher National Diploma (HND) certificate.
Mrs Alabi-Akande, who worked with Daily Trust Newspaper between 2010 and 2022, covered various beats including education, health, technology, gender, children, women, and commerce, and was the newspaper’s correspondent at both the Kaduna State House of Assembly and the Lagos State House at different times.
A recipient of multiple awards, including the “Courage in Journalism” and “2016 Journalist of the Year Award” by Africa Media Development Foundation (AMDF), Mrs Alabi-Akande is passionate about storytelling, humanitarian service, and driving impactful change through her work. Her proficiency in English, Hausa, and Yoruba, combined with her digital marketing skills, makes her a versatile and dynamic media professional.
