Inside the NGIJ Fellowship: The Future of Investigative Journalism

To equip young journalists with critical, in-depth reporting skills, The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) five years ago, launched the Next Generation Investigative Journalists (NGIJ) fellowship. 

In this episode, we take a look at the journey of the NGIJ fellowship since its inception. We sit down with past and present fellows, as well as MFWA leadership, to track the program's successes, its toughest hurdles, and impact on the media landscape

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:07

From the Media Foundation for West Africa, this is the Fourth Estate podcast, Amnina Krofis Matabe. Hello and welcome. Five years ago, the Media Foundation for West Africa launched its investigative journalism project, The Fourth Estate. That same year, it also launched the Next Generation Investigative Journalism Fellowship with a focus on early career journalists. Executive Director of the MFWA Suleimana Bremer says the key objective of the fellowship is to offer emerging journalists an opportunity to harness their potential.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Our newsrooms, yes, in Ghana, quite a number. But the number of graduates coming out are quite a number as well. And so a lot of them would end up, you know, doing their national service elsewhere in corporate organizations, even though they have a passion for journalism. And after their national service may be struggling in terms of doing journalism. So that was mainly the objective to see how we can extend support to young and up-and-coming journalists who really have potential and skills to be able to serve the industry well.

SPEAKER_03 1:14

Beyond the desire to support the careers of young journalists, the MFWA's senior director and head of operations, Abigail Abi, says they decided to focus on investigative journalism because there was a gap in the industry for that type of reporting.

SPEAKER_05 1:29

One of the key programs at the Media Foundation for West Africa is the Media Democracy and Good Governance Program. And a key component of that program is to support the journalistic capacity of mainstream practitioners. Now, we did that over many years, and we realized that investigative reporting was still something a lot of journalists were not getting into. And there were times that you would even have a pool of fans sitting down, you say, Oh, if people have any ideas, if any stories they want to do, they can come for the funding. And the uptake was very, very, very low. So at a point we're like, okay, how do we then sort of um come up with an incubator where we can groom more journalists into getting into this whole investigative journalism thing? And for us, our concept was quite different. It wasn't so much about the undercover kind of reporting. We were looking at breeding early career journalists or journalism graduates to understand what critical reporting is.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

While investigative journalism is a vital type of reporting, Suleimana Brahma says it remains a challenge in Ghana.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Investigative journalism over the years, I mean, is it is perhaps the toughest journalism to do around the world. Um, and in Ghana, we've always had a struggle. If you take the older generation out, in terms of my generation coming down, you would realize we don't have as many people wanting to do what we may call investigative journalism. And I think for some reason, um in Ghana, there was a time when you talk about investigative journalism, everyone is thinking about undercover journalism. You know, I need to hide and um film secretly and so on and so forth. And I think we needed to also disabuse that kind of mindset and let people know that um I've always said investigative journalism is just about journalism done well. You know, um it's not about uh going to hide or taking people by surprise or seeking to always, you know, expose people and so on. Could be a water problem, could be a school problem. Um, just doing it well, speaking to the people and all of that amounts to investigative journalism.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

The idea that investigative journalism requires journalists to secretly film or document issues is not limited to only members of the public. It is one that even some journalists hold on to. Elizabeth Abna Ejin joined the fourth cohort of the NGIJ Fellowship in 2024 and now works with a fourth estate. Mama Visa Farco is part of the most recent cohort that launched in February 2026 and works with a multimedia group. They both conceded they were skeptical about signing up for the fellowship.

SPEAKER_04 4:27

At that time, all I thought investigative journalism was it's undercover. All I thought was you you go and hide somewhere, you have secret cameras on you, you go make some um one-two shots come expose, like expose, like all those things. That's what I thought investigative journalism was. But after joining the training, I got to know that you don't necessarily have to have secret cameras on you before you can do an investigation. You can just go straight. It depends on what exactly you want, the details of whatever you want. That is what makes it um an investigation. Yeah, so after the training, I had a change of mind from the fact that investigative journalism is more of um secret cameras or undercover to it can be alive something. Like the person can know you are interviewing him or her, but it depends on what exactly you want.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

N G I J I had my own skepticism about it. When I hear about or when I heard about investigating journalism, only one word, only one person came to mind, and that is um Anna's Arimio, Anas, catching people, yes, yes, so exposes we have to do and undercover something, hidden truths, that nobody that people don't want it out in the public. I go out there, I uncover it and I bring us. So that was what was actually I was informed about in my mind about investigating journalism. So I was a bit scared, I was a bit afraid. But when I joined this fellowship, I was like, hey, it goes beyond this. It's not about you going to put a mask on your face and all that, it goes beyond that. Just trying to find out why this happened, who did that, to what extent, who is benefiting, and that's all about investigative. You delve, you dick, you go beyond the normal storytelling.

SPEAKER_03 6:26

While the perception of what investigative journalism entails has caused many prospective fellows to second-guess their participation, Abigail Abi says the program faces another challenge presented by the existing media setup in Ghana.

SPEAKER_05 6:41

The media ecosystem in Ghana is also not able to absorb a lot of investigative journalists. The thing currently happening with the media ecosystem is that when you go to a lot of the newsrooms, there are no dedicated desks like that. So these people will come six months, three months, learn a skill of how to do in-depth reporting, enterprising reporting. They go back to their newsrooms and look, you have to produce six stories in a week, and and the editor is waiting for your story. We don't have time for you to sit on one story for one week. It's not practical. So a lot of them leave and they get frustrated back into the newsroom when they are back in the newsrooms where they came from, or some of them are not able to really fit because the the structure within mainstream newsrooms don't really prioritize in-depth reporting, enterprising reporting. So some of them will venture into other things like comms with some CSO, do their own private stuff. But we we are excited that even those who don't get to do practice mainstream critical reporting or in-depth reporting, wherever they find themselves, you can see the quality of the work that they do. So a lot of them have gone on to win awards because they produced one story or the other. And and that is what makes us happy and gives us the maybe evidence or motivation to continue to run.

SPEAKER_03 8:09

So if the NGIJ Fellowship is not about training journalists to put on a mask and secretly document issues, what exactly do the fellows learn during the program?

SPEAKER_05 8:20

A lot of the things they also do there's fact-checking so that you are looking for ensuring that you are verifying whichever information you're you're you're working on. Um if you have to even use the right information um law to request for certain information for public institutions, we also teach them to do that so that you don't just come up with a normal everyday story, but um one mainstream can have a story, but your story would have death.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

So you mentioned using the right information, for instance. What are the other components or like, for instance, what do the fellows go through when they come, like their curriculum? What does it look like?

SPEAKER_05 8:59

So typically it's three-month to six-month fellowship, depending on how many months we are running at a particular time. Of course, that's also due to funding. Um, the curriculum is such that they have training sessions, trainings on mobile journalism, training on fact-checking, training on investigative journalism techniques. And then another part of the whole package is also institutional visits. So, what we get them to do is to be able to visit institutions who have a mandate around anti-corruption, like the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Sharaj, um, other civil society organizations like the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, TI Ghana, YOCO, the Economic and Organized Crime Office, um, the Office of the Special Prosecutor, for instance. So these are institutions that have a mandate to deal with corruption. And we think that during the fellowship, they should have that kind of face-to-face conversation here from these actors. And these are, aside from the CSOs, these are state actors. What are they doing? What are the challenges? Why is it even that journalists produce these stories and they seem to not care? Yeah. You know, even though they have the mandate to deal with some of these issues, then the rest of the months they focus on story production. Because for every fellow, you are required to produce at least one in-depth story by the end of your fellowship. So you just don't pass through the system, but at least you can also say that, oh, I was part of this fellowship, and actually, this is my story. So, yes, it starts with intensive training, um, and then there is institutional visits, and then there is a story production. So it's like a three-part, very intensive components that we've we've put together. Of course, we focus on different thematic areas sometimes, um, depending on who is funding. So I think we've spent about three different years with about four different cohorts focusing extensively on illicit financial flows. Okay. And um, that is quite strongly related to a project that we are running within the organization, funded by Oxfam Ghana, for instance. So, within that, within that theme, then the the fellowship will focus on IFF, and we train them on how to identify um issues of illicit financial flows, how to report on them.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

And the results of the intensive program is clearly attested to by fellows. Elizabeth, who previously worked with the Despite group of companies for five years before joining the Fourth Estate, and Sefaco, who started her career while at the University of Cape Coast over a decade ago, said the fellowship has not only enhanced their skills, but their approach to journalism in general.

SPEAKER_04 11:51

So during the fellowship, I I learned a lot. First of all, I learned um how to use the RTI to request for information. And even me joining um the Fourth Estates, I've been using it frequently and it helps a lot. Initially, I didn't know I didn't know about RTI until I joined this training. Then I got to know there's something called RTI. You you request for information, they give it out to you, and then you find a way to work on it to come up with the story. I also learned um how to use your mobile phones to take coverage or to yeah, to shoot an interview or something. If maybe the camera or the other gadgets are not available, mobile journalism, I also learned that one, which also which is also helping me. Yeah, so I think the fellowship has actually groomed me into knowing more when it comes to journalism.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

I took took us through investigative journalism itself, what it entails, and then how to how to even approach it, how to even pitch an investigative story that is compelling to your editors and then uh module journalism. And now we know we are transitioning from camera, PC. If you go out, then there's a breaking story. How do you tell the people you have to use your mobile phone? So how do you do that? How do you record an emergency story from an interviewee? So we have to use your phone. So, how do you go about that? So that's the module journalism. We also learnt about seeking grants, you know, to do investigative pieces, somebody has to support you somehow somehow, because you can't do all by yourself. So, how do you even pitch a compelling um investigative story to your donors for them to support you to do your story? So we learned all these things, and I realized that it is all encompassing because it is not like one sided thing that investigative person, it has to weave into other modules, other things, other things that we need to know how to even approach the stories that we tell here. So I will say that it has really actually shaped my mentality about um investigative journalism. We know that we have we have gone beyond the normal she says, he says, and all that. Yeah. So now if you go out there and then you are interviewing somebody, the kind of lens that I will have is different from the lens of other journalists. Now I want to find out to what extent how are we going to benefit, who is benefiting from what? And those are the key questions that investigative journalists ask to get the actual um story out there than you present that he said, she said, and all that. Yeah. So it has really actually shaped my landscape for journalism. Now I put on a different lens when I'm approaching stories.

SPEAKER_03 14:42

The success stories from the fellowship extend beyond Ghana, even though the majority of fellows so far have come from Ghana. Suleimana Brahima explains the fellowship has reshaped the career path for many of the fellows who have continued to practice journalism.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

If I would start from Sierra Leone, for example, we had two fellows from Sierra Leone, I think in the second cohort or so. Um, just after the fellowship. In fact, one of them, whilst on fellowship, the fellowship story that he did, got him fired from his parent organization in Sierra Leone before he even went back. And this unfortunately was the public broadcaster, SLBC, the Sierra Leonean uh Broadcasting Corporation. Um, we thought that that was a very unfortunate um development because the journalists had done um some work around the president's promise around free education and whether or not the promise was being fulfilled or otherwise. And um I think the the managers at the place felt that this was critical journalism, which is really what is important for the development of our countries. But fortunately, when he went back, based on the skills that he had learned, he got um contracted together with the other person who was on fellowship to start up um a fact-checking um initiative, you know, by the UN system in Sierra Leone ahead of the elections there. So they were the drivers of making sure that there was information integrity during the elections and all of that. And after that, um he got fully recruited into um AYV Media Empire, um, where I believe he's doing incredible work. Um, here in Ghana, quite a few of our colleagues at the Fourth Estates are fellows. Um, and these are these are fairly young people. You can talk about Philip, you can talk about Telma, you can talk about um Um Ivan Justin, who has been moved to programs, uh Victoria, who has also been moved to programs as well. Uh, all these are you know fellows who came through um the program. And we have others who are outside of Accra. Um, Mark Smith works in Bolga and he's been doing quite amazing work with the local station there, um A1 Radio, as well as filing some great stories for the Fourth Estate as well. So even the Fourth Estate itself has actually been um a recruitment um place for some of the for some of the fellows. And um we do have other fellows currently working with multimedia and um other you know great organizations.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

And as the fellowship grows, Abigail Abby says the MFWA is exploring ways to make the program even more tailored to the needs of fellows.

SPEAKER_05 17:24

It's been five years. We've been doing our own reflections on how do we modify the model? How do we do we should we bring in 10 people every time? Should it always be residential? Should it be non-residential, or should we have just about two, three people, you know, um in a one-year fellowship, perhaps with a fourth estate, or some somehow. So we've been doing a lot of reflections, and we wish that mainstream were able to accommodate the mass and when they they they build up these skills. Unfortunately, that's not the situation that we are faced actually.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

It's really about it's it's the skills, the competence is critical for us. Then developing the passion for journalism because journalism um doesn't pay well, um, unfortunately, on our part of the world. And sometimes that may then drive people to think about which other ways we can make money whilst doing journalism. Um, sometimes not through a clean way, um, as they call it, brand envelope journalism or whatever. So uh inspiring these young people to believe that look, you can make it by doing it genuinely is part of the part of the agenda. Getting them inspired about the moral values is part of the agenda. So anytime we are opening the fellowship, I dedicate whatever time I have to talking to them about values, living an ethical life, living, you know, a life that you you reflect on and you are proud, and making people aware that it's not all about money. You know, money is important, but um, life shouldn't just be about money. I think we have to know how we measure our own standards of wealth. What makes you happy? Is it about what you do in life and what people know you for, or is it just about making money? Because if it's just about making money, then you know you could do a lot of things. People resort to criminal things and and all of that. So uh the values we try to inculcate is for me what is really critical as well.

SPEAKER_03 19:45

So then that brings me to the last question, which I feel like you've answered in a way, even in this response. After the fellowship, what next for the fellows? Because you are instilling these values in them that you want them to carry ahead. But what else do they do with it?

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Well, um, we we we wish um we could have the opportunity to retain as many of the fellows as possible at the Media Foundation for West Africa, either doing programming program work or doing journalism um through the fourth estate or through fact-checking. Um but of course, we do not have the capacity to be able to retain everyone. And of course, even after the fellowship, even if we had the capacity, um, some may not really uh just like schooling, some may not um distinguish themselves so well as to merit being retained. But like I said before, um, we've had colleagues um and we call everyone colleagues, so once you come through the fellowship, you become a colleague who are now doing quite some good work, uh either within journalism, within media organizations, or even in the corporate sector. I'm not sure whether it's been done already, but I think it's yet to be done, where we are bringing all the fellows from the beginning together, okay, you know, to have a conversation about what is happening, you know, how are they coping with life? In what ways can we help? How can we connect them better? How can we network better and all of that? So it eventually will become a family, even though the period for the fellowship is quite short. You know, maximum five months, you know, some have had to do three months, but in some cases they live together, you know, they are put in the same apartment, they live together, they do the daily commute, um, they sit in their classrooms together, they pursue joint stories. So hopefully um we would be able to get them to bond with each other, network properly, share opportunities with each other. And um at the foundation also, we do have some opportunities occasionally, either for travel or for further studies or for further fellowships outside the country. And there have been a few occasions where we've referenced for some of them to be able to benefit from these fellowships. But at the end of the day, I think it comes down to the individual commitments, the individual values, the individual aspirations. Because we may tell you all the right things, uh, but it's up to individuals to take them up and work with them and hopefully be able to distinguish themselves wherever they find themselves.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

And that's it for this episode. My name is Nia Krofis Matabi. Join us again next time for another episode of the Fourth Estate podcast.