PREMIUM TIMES journalist nominated for PSHAN health investigation award

Mariam Ileyemi, a journalist with PREMIUM TIMES, has been nominated for the Outstanding Health Investigation Award ahead of the 2026 Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PSHAN) Annual Awards.

The nomination was announced on Monday in the Media and Innovative Health Communication category, with Ms Ileyemi listed among the top three nominees.

Ms Ileyemi was nominated for her open-source investigation, “Social media, anonymous websites drive Nigeria’s poorly regulated weight-loss injection market,” which examined how weight-loss injections are being marketed and sold without prescriptions. The investigation also uncovered a network of anonymous websites promoting weight-loss injections, including retatrutide, an investigational drug still undergoing clinical trials.

PSHAN says the Outstanding Health Investigation Award recognises investigations that uncover systemic healthcare issues. Ms Ileyemi is nominated alongside Sadeeq Atanda of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism and Yemisi Adegoke, Chigozie Nwonwu and Lina Shaikhouni of BBC/BBC Eye.

PSHAN said an expert panel of judges will select the winner of each award and announce the results at its Annual Awards and Gala Night on 20 November 2026.

Other nominees

Other awards include the Health Influencer of the Year, which recognises digital creators promoting credible health content, and the Health Journalism Excellence Award.

The top three nominees for Health Influencer of the Year are Olawale Ogunlana, Olufunke Arowolo and Chinonso Egemba, popularly known as Aproko Doctor.

For the Health Journalism Excellence Award, the nominees are Racheal Abujah of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Ojoma Akor of Health & Science Africa, and Bilkis Abdulraheem-Lawal of Radio Nigeria/Grassroots Broadcast.

About Mariam Ileyemi

Ms Ileyemi is a journalist on the Health and Development Desk at PREMIUM TIMES, where she reports on health, gender and development issues. She was named PREMIUM TIMES Reporter of the Year 2025 at the newspaper’s Annual Editorial Awards.

She is a fellow of the 2025 Africa Health Communications Fellowship by Fraycollege, South Africa, and a beneficiary of the 2023 Media-EIS Fellowship, among other fellowships.

She is also a recipient of the Mamman Marshall Scholarship for Women in Journalism and was nominated for the 2024 Nigeria Healthcare Excellence Award in the Prevent Epidemics category.

Ms Ileyemi holds a degree in Mass Communication from the Lagos State University (LASU).