In December 2022, INMA and Google News Initiative (GNI) awarded their third annual Elevate Scholarship to 50 news media professionals from 31 countries. This series features these impressive media professionals who are shaping our industry.

Akinola Adegbolahan is a self-motivated senior digital and print supervisor in the advertisement unit of Punch Nigeria Limited, publisher of Nigeria’s most widely read newspapers.

His tenacity, drive for excellence, and innovative ideas have had a tremendous impact on the company’s growth, especially its revenue. And that, he said, has been extremely important to him: “My main goal is to significantly grow Punch Nigeria Limited’s revenue since I got employed in 2013.” 

He has won many laurels in his productive career, including winning the departmental staff of the year. Akinola has won prizes for consistently surpassing his sales target and KPIs. Because of this, he was promoted to senior print and digital supervisor.

Akinola aspires to become a world-class digital marketer and advertising guru. He plans to do this by becoming more proficient in different tasks through career-related certifications, gaining more varied skill sets, understanding how his target market behaves, knowing which channels are most effective, and learning how to interpret digital metrics that offer valuable insights into how to tailor marketing efforts.

“There are many skill sets I’d like to pick up through the Elevate Scholarship,” Akinola said. Some of those include analytical and critical thinking communication, CRM, marketing automation, data analysis, social media marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO), project management, paid social advertising designs, e-mail marketing, copywriting “… and even more,” he said.

Akinola believes widening his perspective will contribute to the inclusiveness of the news media industry. One way Akinola will do this is by covering and reporting news with context and providing the proper explanation. He “… intends to be transparent at all times [to] avoid generalisation and stigmatisation.”

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