KAMPALA – NBS TV news anchor Solomon Serwanjja has been named winner of the prestigious BBC World News Komla Dumor Award for the year 2019.
Mr Serwanjja won the award during a function held in Lagos, Nigeria at the weekend.
“Congratulations to our very own Solomon Serwanjja who has been named winner of the 2019 BBC World News Komla Dumor Award. Mr Serwanjja becomes the second Ugandan after Nancy Kacungira, to win the award and will spend the next three months at the BBC in London,” NBS TV tweeted on Monday morning.
Mr Serwanjja’s star rose when he, alongside BBC journalists uncovered the theft of government drugs and medicines in a special investigative story that featured on NBS TV and BBC.
To qualify for the award, one needed to be made to an outstanding individual living and working in Africa, who combines strong journalism skills, on-air flair, and an exceptional talent in telling African stories with the ambition and potential to become a star of the future.
As well as spending time with the BBC in London, the winner will also get to travel to Africa to report a story – and have that story shared across the continent and the world.
Past winners are Kacungira from Uganda (2015), Didi Akinyelure from Nigeria (2016), Amina Yuguda from Nigeria (2017) and Waihiga Mwaura from Kenya (2018).
Kenyan journalist Waihiga Mwaura won last year’s award and reported from Togo for his main project about young innovators turning e-waste into 3D printers and robots.
Waihiga said that you could always sense “the passion in the way Komla told the African story”.
