Winners of Media Awards on Electrical Counterfeiting in Africa Receive Awards in France

PARIS, France, September 26, 2014/ — Winners of the first Media Awards on Electrical Counterfeiting in Africa on Thursday received their awards during a special ceremony held in Grenoble (France) in the presence of Mrs Tracy Garner, Global Anti-counterfeiting Manager at Schneider Electric (http://www.schneider-electric.com).

The Media Awards on Electrical Counterfeiting in Africa was established by Schneider Electric (http://www.schneider-electric.com), the global specialist in energy management. It recognises African journalists who publish or broadcast outstanding investigative reports on issues relating to electrical counterfeiting in Africa.

The first Media Awards on Electrical Counterfeiting in Africa was won by Adedeji Ademigbuji, senior correspondent at The Nation newspaper (Nigeria), for his piece entitled “Checking the menace of fake electrical products” and by Birame Faye, reporter at Le Quotidien newspaper in Senegal, for his piece entitled “Electricité – Usage des produits contrefaits : De l’insécurité dans notre confort domestique”.

“Schneider Electric is extremely proud to award the very first Media Awards on Electrical Counterfeiting in Africa. I would like to express my warmest congratulations to these two very talented journalists,” said Tracy Garner, Global Anti-counterfeiting Manager at Schneider Electric.

Adedeji Ademigbuji started his journalism career in 2001 as an intern after completing a National Diploma Programme from The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Oyo State (Nigeria).

In 2006, Adedeji joined the National Standard news magazine. Later that year, he left the National Standard as a senior correspondent to work as a freelance writer for The Sun newspaper. In 2011, Adedeji joined the National Mirror as a business correspondent. After winning the 2013 Social Enterprise Reporting Award (SERA) in the CSR category and the Nigerian Media Merit Awards (NMMA) Coca-Cola Prize in the Brands & Marketing category, setting records in the Newspaper Reporter of the Year and Telecom Reporter of the Year categories, he was sought out by The Nation newspaper to handle the paper’s Brands & Marketing pages.

A graduate of the Institute of Science and Information Technology (CESTI) at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar (Senegal), Birame Faye joined Le Quotidien newspaper immediately after completing his studies. Birame specialised in Online Journalism at the Berlin International Institute, before being assigned to his newspaper’s political section. He then took part in two training courses in Economic and Financial Journalism at the Thomson Reuters Foundation. In 2012, he also attended a training course in Investigative Journalism organised by the Panos Institute in West Africa (IPAO). On two occasions, he was awarded the First Prize for Investigative Journalism launched by the IPAO. Birame Faye holds a Master’s degree in Media and Communication, as well as a Master’s degree in Project Management.

Distributed by APO (African Press Organization) on behalf of Schneider Electric SA.