Akintunde Babatunde is currently the Director of Programmes at the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development. Working with a team of 60+ professionals in 5 Anglophone West African countries, he is responsible for programme leadership and coordinating projects that advance independent media, revenue sustainability and journalism innovation across West Africa.

Since joining the organisation in 2017, Akintunde has pioneered and/or led several of the organisation’s flagship projects. He pioneered Dubawa between 2017-2018, where he authored dozens of articles, trained over 500 journalists and was nominated for “African Fact-checker Award of the Year 2018”. Between 2018-2019, he led UDEME – CJID’s social accountability tool that allows citizens to hold the government to account on how development funds are spent. He subsequently pioneered the Natural Resources and Extractives Programme (NAREP), where he led the creation of a database that houses Nigeria’s monthly allocations to states and other state revenue data for the past 12 years.

In 2021, he became the pioneer Deputy Director in charge of CJID’s Development programme, where he coordinated CJID’s efforts to drive research and policy work across West Africa on six projects, including natural resources and extractives; human development: health, education, and agriculture; conflict and security; climate change, and energy transition.

Akintunde has authored hundreds of articles on public policy, governance, and fiscal transparency on both local and international media platforms and coordinated fellowship programmes and over 30 capacity development programmes for over a thousand journalists, researchers, civil society practitioners, and government officials which has produced over 1000 reports; 7 policy briefs published in over 30 news agencies and development platforms in West Africa. He has made presentations on climate change policy in West Africa at various institutions, including the European Parliament and COP26 New York Times Climate Hub. His broadcast commentary has appeared on BBC, Channels TV, TVC, Silverbird, and NTA, among others.

Akintunde is a member of the International Youth Climate Movement, a UNESCO MIL Ambassador, a 2021 Climate Reality Leader, and a 2022 Mandela Washington Fellow of the Presidential Precinct. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Management/Mathematics from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and an MA (with Distinction) in Media Practice for Development and Social Change from the University of Sussex as a Chevening scholar.