Entries Open For 50th Sanlam Group Financial Journalists Awards 2024-2025

Sanlam and Santam have announced the opening of entries for the 2024-2025 edition of the Sanlam Group Awards for Excellence in Financial Journalism, which marks 50 years since the competition started.

According to a statement by the organizers made available to this medium today, the jubilee edition of the awards is scheduled to be hosted in Johannesburg in October.

The competition is open to journalists residing in Africa, employed by an African news organisation, and publishing or broadcasting their work on the continent.

The awards cover financial journalism across print, radio, television and online platforms spotlighting Africa’s economic challenges and progress. The

awards carry a total cash prize of almost R1 million.

Entries close on 31 March 2025. Entries must have been published or broadcast between 1 January and 31 December 2024. All entries must be submitted on the entry form at the Sanlam Group’s Financial Journalism Awards website.

The independent panel of judges, comprising retired business editors, media trainers, journalism academics and economists, is responsible for selecting the winners. The selection process is based on several criteria, including news value, impact, thoroughness of reporting, analytical value, originality,

integrity, expertise on the topic and storytelling ability.

As part of further enhancing and streamlining the competitive selection process, the independent judging panel has announced two new important rule changes for the awards.

The two new rule changes are:

•Entrants may submit only two pieces of journalistic work as one entry in a category

•Entrants can enter a maximum of three category awards only.

Further, entrants are reminded that an entry (i.e. news story) submitted for one category cannot be re-submitted for another category of the competition.

The rules for entering the awards can be viewed at the eligibility and rules web pages of the competition website, while the criteria for evaluating entries is available at the following link: Categories and criteria.

Over time, the categories have evolved and currently stand at nine:

• Business and Companies

• Economy

• Financial Markets

• Consumer Financial Education

• The African Growth Story

• Environment Social Governance: Business and (its impact on the) Environment

• Environment Social Governance: Business and (its impact on) Society

• Broadcast: Radio/Audio/Business news podcasts

• Broadcast: Television/Video

Chair of the independent judging panel, Mr Nixon Kariithi, said: “We are excited to reach the jubilee milestone of recognising the best in African financial journalism. For 50 years, these awards have ensured that trust, accuracy and relevance are embedded in African business journalism and that this

culture shall continue to be a beacon for the future. Journalists are the torchbearers of truth,illuminating the path to informed societies and holding power to account in an era where the integrity of information is paramount. Robust business journalism is fundamental to our journey towards a more

just and equitable world.”

Mr Kariithi is joined on the panel by:

• Ms Angela Agoawike, Media Practitioner (Nigeria)

• Ms Emily May Brown, Media Studies Academic (Namibia)

• Mr Freddie Rayborn Bulley, Financial journalism trainer (Ghana)

• Mr Tom Indimuli, Communications Consultant (Kenya)

• Mr Ulrich Joubert, Independent Economist (South Africa)

• Ms Aggie Asiimwe Konde, Chartered Marketer CIM Fellow and ESG advisor (Uganda)

• Mr Charles Naudé, Retired Editor (South Africa)

• Mr Musa Zondi, Communications Consultant (South Africa)