Encomium
Fellows of the second edition of MTN’s Media Innovation Programme (MIP) graduated on Friday, April 26, 2024, at the Lagos Business School, Lekki, Lagos.
The graduating fellows, including media practitioners and content creators, are the second set of the programme’s graduates after an intensive six-month training which included a study trip to the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
A key highlight of the graduation ceremony is the presentation of plaques to two distinguished fellows, Chinenye Anuforo and Abdulrasheed Hussain for innovative reportage on MTN Foundation and MTN Nigeria Chairman’s Prize for Innovation respectively.
While congratulating the new fellows for completing this learning phase, the Executive Director of MTN Foundation, Odunayo Sanya, said, “We expect to hear of you, we expect to see you, visibly breaking new grounds, pushing the frontiers, and indeed setting very good standards. At MTN, this is our DNA, we do not leave people the way we met them and when you look at our story, even as a commercial business, that’s the way it’s been. MTN has made a commitment to be a part of the sustainable development of Nigeria. We know we can’t do it alone, and that’s why we look for avenues like this and join hands to deliver transformation”.
Also speaking at the event, Dr Ikechukwu Obiaya, Dean of the School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, said, “Knowledge is power, but I’d ask this question, now that you have this knowledge, what are you going to do with it? You have all successfully completed the certificate programme which has consisted in a transmission of knowledge and knowledge as we know is empowering. But then knowledge could be useless if we do not apply it. So, I ask again, now that you have this knowledge what are you going to do with it? I’d like to make a suggestion and that is to use knowledge to work towards change. We all complain a lot about the way things are and we could limit ourselves to those complaints, but the challenge is for us to actually make a difference in striving to improve the space in which we find ourselves. I don’t think any of us here will be able to change the world, but we can change the square-meter within which we find ourselves. Use knowledge to enrich the community. So while congratulating you, I also charge you in the goal of wanting to improve self, society and the particular space that you find yourself, I do hope that you will take up this charge to work with us in achieving these goals.”
Co-created by MTN Nigeria and the School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, the Media Innovation Programme is a six-month, fully-funded certificate fellowship, which includes a study visit to the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and an innovation hub to incubate ideas, is open to media practitioners and content creators across all strata of the media industry including the print, electronic and online platforms.
