Anikeade Funke-Treasure Akintoye is a multiple award-winning, multi-genre media personality and social entrepreneur in Nigeria. She bestrides radio, TV, print media as well as literature and digital media. A well sought after media trainer, conference facilitator, moderator, speaker, panelist, media analyst and across Nigeria, West Africa and Africa, she has mentored scores of broadcasters, and journalists in Nigeria, Liberia, and Burkina Faso, in partnership with leading media capacity & development organisations.
Her areas of specialty include news, news feature, programme presentation, production, media relations, multimedia and specialized interventions like reporting gender, HIV/AIDS, Covid-19 pandemic and domestic violence.
A writer and thought leader in broadcasting, her articles dot the Nigerian media landscape. She is the author of three books, her first, Memories of Grandma, and two others in her Pronunciation Guide Series. She is a certified leadership coach with the John Maxwell Team, a speech coach and a compere of high network events. The broadcast administrator exited Radio Nigeria as an Assistant Director. As General Manager, Radio One 103.5FM, she handled an impressive change project that transformed the station to a news and sports talk radio station in two broadcast languages. She was former UN IRIN Radio Country Producer/Trainer Nigeria on the 5-West African nation corridor project on HIV/AIDS.
She has authored three books, Memories of Grandma, a childhood memoir; and two books in the pronunciation guide series for second language speakers of the English Language. They are The Clergy & The Spoken Word Industry.
An award-winning campaigner and advocate for women and the girl child, with a focus on menstrual health, sexual and gender based violence, sports and governance; she is the Convener of Sanitary Pad Media Campaign (SPMC), a menstrual health advocacy group and the Funke Treasure Table Tennis Championship for girls. She passed the Evidence in Public Policy online course at Oxford University’s Blatvanik School of Government with distinctions in 2023. Her radio drama, My Period, My Pride supported by the McArthur Foundation aired on six Nigerian radio stations in 2023. It is presently airing on Radio Nigeria, Africa’s largest radio network with over 30 radio stations in one single broadcast. A podcaster, her podcast on menstrual health, ‘My Period Stories’ is presently running on Africa Magic Family on DStv and GOtv simultaneously, beaming to sub-Saharan Africa weekly.
A researcher with interests in the interrelatedness of media, health, public policy and governance with sustainable development. Within the past three years, she was Consultant Producer for Community Level Accountability Mechanisms Radio Programme in six South West Nigerian states for Women Leaders (Iyalodes & Iyalojas) & Traditional Institutions in addressing Gender Based Violence for Women Advocates Research & Documentation Centre (WARDC). She was Consultant Researcher: Improving the Protection and Safety of Female Journalists in West Africa for International Press Centre (IPC) with the Illuminate Nigeria – a social enterprise 0814 793 7878 : sharingwithtreasure@gmail.com support of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA). She was Training Consultant: Understanding Investigative Reporting & Developing an Investigative VAWG Story & Reporting Violence against Women and Girls in Nigeria Project for Africa Women in Media (AWIM). She was also a Systems & Processes Consultant saddled with crafting and preparing crucial operational documents and workflows needed for the take-off of Radio Now 101.9FM, Lagos.
As a researcher, she has co-written researches on democratic governance, gender, safety of journalists, youths, media and elections and more. Her research work, The Rising Popularity of Pidgin English Radio Stations in Nigeria: An Audience Study of Wazobia FM, Lagos gives an insight into the origin and evolution of the use of Pidgin English in Nigerian Broadcasting. Her chapter contribution, Talk Radio: A Democratic Tool for Citizen Engagement in the book, Watchdog or Captured Media? A Study of the Role of the Media in Nigeria’s Emergent Democracy 199-2016, was also acclaimed. In October 2023, the International Press Centre, Lagos with support from Open Society Foundation published the research manual she co-edited titled a ‘Resource Guide on Impactful Reporting of Grassroots Development Issues & Safety Conscious Journalism’. In December, 2022, she won the “The Girl Force Movement 2022 S.H.E.R.O” award. The SEEN. HEARD. ENGAGED. RESOURCEFUL and OPEN-MINDED (S.H.E.R.O) is given to a Girl Force Movement member making significant contributions in the lives of the girl child in her local community and actively contributing to the Girl Force Movement Community.
In October, 2023, her organisation, Illuminate Nigeria Development Network received a finalist plaque in the Non-Profit Investing in Young Women category at the Pan African Gender Mainstreaming Award 2023, West Africa Edition. She is presently a finalist, Positive Role Model West Africa 2024 for the Pan African Gender Mainstreaming Award. She is also an awardee of the Social Impact of the Year Category of ‘The Iconic Brand Africa Award’ (TIBA) 2024.
A well sought after current affairs analyst on radio and TV, she is presently a co-host /panelist on ‘A Place at the Table’, on News Central TV, Channel 422 on DSTV. Her appearances on major TV networks in Nigeria are as follows; Newspaper Review on TVC’s breakfast show, The Advocate on PlusTV Africa on Channel 408 on DSTV on which I dwelt on pertinent issues in governance. Others are African Independent Television (AIT), Radio Now, Rainbow FM and University of Lagos Radio (Unilag Radio).
Her news feature report on female condoms at the Seme border made the category finalist of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Award for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Reporting in Africa as part of the 2007 CNN/Multi Choice Africa Journalism Awards. In 2010, she covered and reported the Beijing Review Conference at the UN Headquarters in New York for Radio Nigeria. She is the first female journalist to manage an all-news radio station in the Radio Nigeria Network and indeed the Nigerian broadcast industry.
She is on training retainership with capacity building organisations for Nigerian journalists namely International Press Centre, Institute for Media Studies, Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, the Journalism Clinic, and the Soni Irabor Institute for Media &Communication amongst others. She has trained more than a thousand media Illuminate Nigeria – a social enterprise 0814 793 7878 : sharing with treasure@gmail.com professionals in Nigeria, cutting across print, online and broadcast media. She is a regular resource person for media training generally, and for women journalists in particular. Her area of competence ranges from health, development, disability, elections, women, governance, reporting, production, broadcast management, leadership and personal development.
She has a series of writing projects, as researcher and writer, particular about the intersection of the media with democratic governance. She was one of the five media experts who created the Resource Manual on Elections and Democratic Accountability Reporting; a European Union funded project for Nigerian journalists towards the 2019 elections. She was both a contributor and co-reviewer at the stakeholders meeting to review and update the Nigerian Media Code of Elections. She was chapter contributor to Watchdog or Captured Media? A Study of the Role of the Media in Nigeria’s Emergent Democracy 1999 – 2016, Edited by Ayo Olukotun.
She was also one of the group of five media experts engaged by Action Aid, Nigeria; who worked on contextualising and domesticating the Media Strategy for Mobilising Civil Society Support for the Implementation of the African Governance Architecture (AGA) and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) policy documents for Nigeria. In 2017, she was a member of the Research Advisory Group for the DFID funded Voices for Change Peer Led Research on Young People & their Participation in the Process of Change in Nigeria. In the past, she maintained columns with The Guardian and the defunct New Age Newspapers. She is a media analyst on radio and TV.
In 2018, she was invited as a panelist and moderator by different organisations ahead of the 2019 general elections. At the onset of the 2015 presidential elections, I was a panelist for the Vice Presidential Election Debate organised by the Nigerian Electoral Debate Group (NEDG) featuring the cream of the Nigerian media, a blend of the young and the old.
Anikeade Funke Treasure serves as mentor for journalists with the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism. She was a Training Consultant on Understanding Investigative Reporting & Developing an Investigative VAWG Story, for the Reporting Violence against Women and Girls in Nigeria project run by African Women in the Media (AWIM) an international non-governmental media organization. She is a volunteer for #FIX Politics, a political advocacy platform to socialize a new crop of politicians in Nigeria in good governance run by former Nigerian Presidential Aspirant, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili. She was also one of the pioneer moderators for School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG) and later a mentor on the school’s mentorship programme, The Capstone Project. She volunteers as a moderator for Rescue Nigeria, another political empowerment & advocacy group for its bi-monthly People’s Parliament.
In 2024, she was invited by the Institute of African Studies, Carlton, University to facilitate a media session for Queen Elizabeth Scholarship for early career women scholars from West Africa. She delivered the topic, ‘Leveraging the media to advertise research output’ at the valedictory press conference and professional networking event. This led to another invitation by the Dean, Faculty of Law & Strategic Studies, Babcock University, Nigeria for an encore performance.
University, South Africa. She is presently a doctorate student and an associate lecturer at Lagos State University, Lagos State, Nigeria. She retired voluntarily from Radio Nigeria as an Assistant Director Programmes in 2019.
Funke Treasure is on the board of International Press Centre (IPC), African Diaspora Contemporary Arts Company (ADCAC), The Real Economy Sector Initiative (TRESI) and a handful of others. She is the Executive Director, Illuminate Nigeria Development Network (INDN), the Lead Consultant/Trainer at Yellow Bloom Consulting, the Creative Director at Yellow Bloom Productions, and Founder, ‘Live Your Dream Masterclass’. She is a John Maxwell Team certified coach, speaker and facilitator.
On January 1, 2025, she launched a Documentary Fellowship for Students in Public Universities on her Media Mentoring Initiative project. She is a Judge/Pronouncer for the pioneer Spellingbee in Nigeria Competition, a US Scripps Spelling Bee Franchise run by Young Educators Foundation.