BusinessDay journalists, again, emerge winners in 2014 SEC essay competition

In what now implies a statement to the financial world, BusinessDay journalists have again emerged winners in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) essay competition for financial journalists.

Edozie Ifebi of BusinessDay came first in the 2014 edition; Iheanyi Nwachukwu, also of BusinessDay, emerged second, while Okey Onyenweaku of Business Hallmark emerged third prize winner.

The awards were presented to the winners over the weekend at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.

BusinessDay journalists have consecutively won this competition since its inception in 2012.

For winning in the essay competition, these journalists will be sponsored by SEC on training courses both in Nigeria and abroad.

This is in pursuance of SEC’s objective to strengthen interest in reading and writing about the capital markets on the part of professional journalists and to engender the spill-over consequence of such enhanced interest in the wider society.

Only in October, SEC sponsored seven journalists on training both in Nigeria and the United States of America (USA).

This gesture by the commission was redemption of the 2012 and 2013 prizes to winners of the SEC essay competition.

Out of the seven journalists, three were winners in the 2012 edition and they are Iheanyi Nwachukwu of BusinessDay, Taofeek Salako of the Nation, and Chris Ugwu then of Leadership, while the winners in the 2013 editions are Teslim Shitta-Bey of Business Hallmark, Patrick Atuanya of BusinessDay, Sule Teliat Balogun of BusinessDay and Eromosele Abiodun of ThisDay.

Two of the journalists have concluded their training in Business Writing and Communication Skills at Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) in Lagos while the remaining five had their training at the International Law Institute in Washington DC after one and two weeks training, respectively.

The essay competition is part of SEC’s capacity building for the media industry and also investor education and has become a signature event of the commission which is targeted at business, financial and capital market journalists.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria was established in 1979 as the apex regulator of the Nigerian capital market. It is a Federal Government statutory body supervised by the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Its activities are currently governed by the Investments and Securities Act (ISA) 2007. The SEC has the overarching mandate of investor protection, ensuring orderly and equitable dealings in securities, developing the market and shielding it from all forms of abuses.