AJALA SAMUEL AKINDELE

Samuel Ajala has over three years of experience working as a journalist, youth development enthusiast, SDGs advocate, and social worker.

He is the Executive Director of Develop Africa Now Initiative (DANI), a youth and community-based organization committed to promoting sustainable development in rural and underserved areas across Africa through advocacy, civic media, and inclusion. The organization has impacted over 2,500 people in Nigeria including students, youths, women, and elderly persons through various projects and programs since its inception.

He also works as a freelance journalist with Premium Times and is currently the President of the National Union of Campus Journalists, Nigeria; an organization that coordinates the affairs of all campus journalists in Nigeria.

As a student journalist, he has worked as an election observer in five state gubernatorial elections with Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) and has tracked constituency projects through Udeme platform to promote transparency and accountability in Nigeria. He is a staunch advocate for education technology, sustainable development goals (SDGs), and good governance.

For his contribution towards climate change and renewable energy reportage, Samuel and a fellow from Zimbabwe were selected to represent Africa at Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue (BETD) 2020, but the media fellowship program was canceled because of the outbreak of Coronavirus. Hence, the program was run virtually.

In 2020, for his role in civic engagement and service to the public through non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, and volunteerism, he became a fellow with Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Regional Leadership Conference where he is now an Alumni.

For his contribution towards promoting sustainable development goals (SDGs) in rural and underserved areas in Nigeria, he was selected as an Ambassador of World Literacy Foundation(WLF) in 2020.

Samuel has many of his reports on Premium Times, News Digest, The Nation Newspaper, Campusreporter, and other national dailies in Nigeria. In 2019, he was featured on Anambra Broadcasting Service(ABS) alongside Dr Chido Onumah, coordinator of African Center for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) to speak on “Campus Journalism in the era of fake news“. In 2020, he was shortlisted for the Campus Journalism Award and won the Student Journalist of the Year Award for FAGE and SAGE.