Our Stories of Accountability, Impact and Institutional Excellence in 2025

Introduction

Throughout 2025, PUNCH Media Foundation (PMF) consolidated its role as a high-performing, mission-driven institution advancing accountability journalism, policy advocacy, media development, and civic engagement. The Foundation delivered sustained impact through investigative reporting, strategic partnerships, capacity-building initiatives, and national-level advocacy, strengthening and re-emphasising its mandate, capability, and capacity to promote a just, inclusive, and thriving civic space.

Accountability Journalism at Scale Through PUNCH HealthWise

In 2025, PUNCH HealthWise remained PMF’s flagship accountability journalism platform, delivering consistent, high-volume, award-winning high-impact reporting across health, gender, environment and social development.

Across the four quarters of the year, PUNCH HealthWise published:

Beyond reach, PUNCH HealthWise, PMF’s flagship project, published special reports that delivered tangible accountability outcomes during the year. Below are some of the impactful pieces published and the responses they triggered:

Trigger Stories	Impact
Seven years after the ban, cart pushers return to Lagos streets	Enforcement actions by the Lagos Waste Management Authority
Inside Ogun PHCs where health workers demand fuel from pregnant women before delivery	State-level probes into unethical health practices
How obsolete facilities turn Kogi federal hospital to death house	Legislative summons by the House of Representatives
LASG hospitals operate without dialysis machines as N5.6 bn renal centre suffers	Repurposing of abandoned public infrastructure
How Lagos scavengers sorting refuse with hands spread diseases, threaten lives	Closure and reform commitments around hazardous dumpsites
Blackout: Nursing mothers, pregnant women in Lagos community groan over water crisis	Restoration of electricity and water access in affected communities
Monument of waste: N41bn Akwa Ibom specialist hospital with rotting facilities	Recruitment drives to address staffing gaps in tertiary hospitals
Open defecation: Inside Lagos motor parks where faeces, flies welcome passengers	State commitments to large-scale sanitation infrastructure

These outcomes reaffirmed PMF’s model of journalism that does not merely inform but drives reform, restores dignity and strengthens public accountability.

Multimedia Storytelling and Public Education

In 2025, our social media presence got stronger and more audience engaging as PMF significantly expanded its public education footprint through multimedia storytelling. Across the year, the Health360 and FunFacts series delivered simplified, engaging content on public health, hygiene, gender and environmental issues.

Cumulatively, multimedia outputs across Q1 – Q4 generated:

This sustained performance strengthened PMF’s ability to translate technical and policy-heavy issues into accessible narratives, broadening audience understanding and reinforcing public trust.

Capacity Building and Professional Development

Capacity development remained central to PMF’s strategy in 2025, spanning journalism, education, public service and institutional leadership.

Key programmes implemented during the year included:

Collectively, PMF trained and supported over 160 professionals and educators in 2025, strengthening ethical journalism, civic education, public-sector communication and institutional effectiveness.

Policy Engagement, Advocacy and National Convening

PMF played a convening and agenda-setting role in national policy discourse throughout the year. Major engagements included:

International Women’s Day Webinar
Advocacy campaigns marking the International Day of the Girl Child and the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls
Investing in Health in a Limited Fiscal Space (policy webinar)
National Health Dialogue: Evidence, Innovation, and Financing for a Healthier Nigeria

These platforms convened policymakers, development partners, civil society actors, journalists and citizens, translating evidence into advocacy priorities around domestic resource mobilisation, budget efficiency, insurance expansion, mental health financing and accountability mechanisms.

Technology, Innovation and Data for Accountability

In 2025, PMF strengthened its digital and data infrastructure to support journalism and civic accountability. Key milestones included:

Completion of the Total Health App MVP
Draft Design of proposed UI/UX of the PMF website
Progress on the AGORA LGA Data Project, achieving:
- Completed data for 21 states
- Partial data for 11 states
- Preparatory structures for 5 states

These investments are geared towards enhancing PMF’s capacity for data-driven reporting, performance tracking and civic transparency.

Strategic Partnerships and Institutional Trust

PMF enjoyed increased trust and sustained strategic relationships with development partners within and beyond the African continent. PMF’s work in 2025 was strengthened through strategic collaborations with:

Gates Foundation
Premium Times
Nigeria Health Watch
Wild Africa Fund
PUNCH Nigeria Limited
Agora Policy

This growth amplified PMF’s accountability narratives and strengthened its public engagement ecosystem.

Recognition and Excellence

PMF’s commitment to excellence was recognised nationally as PUNCH HealthWise reports won prestigious awards during the year. These awards were driven by investigative stories that exemplified accountability journalism and reinforced PMF’s institutional reputation.

Closing the Year

By the end of 2025, PUNCH Media Foundation had demonstrated not only scale but coherence, linking journalism to reform, capacity building to professional standards and partnerships to sustained impact. The year closed with PMF firmly positioned as the EPICC, disciplined, credible and high-impact institution, ready to expand its work, influence in 2026 and continue shaping accountability, inclusion and civic engagement whilst driving sustainable change across Nigeria.

PUNCH Media Foundation (PMF) is a non-profit organisation established in 2019 to promote a just, inclusive and thriving civic space through investigative journalism, digital innovation, policy advocacy and media development.