Gideon Sarpong is a media practitioner and policy analyst in Ghana with a decade of experience in policy, data, and investigative journalism. He co-founded iWatch Africa where he currently works as Director of Policy and News.

He is an alumnus of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the Commonwealth Youth Program, Free Press Unlimited, and the Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative. Gideon was a 2020/21 Policy Leader Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy and a 2021/22 Reuters Fellow at the University of Oxford, UK.
He was also a 2020/21 Open Internet for Democracy Leader at the Center for International Media Assistance and the National Democratic Institute in Washington, DC.

He is a recipient of several reporting grants including from the Pulitzer Center, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, the Henry Nxumalo Foundation, Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism, Africa-China Grants, Journalismfund.eu, and many others. Gideon won the best reporter for ICT in West Africa in 2021 and was selected by the Thomson Reuters Foundation as a 2022 Changemaker.

Gideon Sarpong

Basic information

Name
Gideon Sarpong
Title
Co-Founder and Director of Policy and News, iWatch Africa
Expertise
Data, investigative and policy journalism
Country
Ghana
City
Accra

Supported projects

Rubber for Europe is fuelling environmental and human rights violations in Ghana and Nigeria

  • Environment
  • Human Rights

EDO/OKOMU – The journalists revealed that rubber and palm oil craze is a reason behind land grabbing, deforestation, and human rights violations in both Ghana and Nigeria. The French company Socfin's presence in southern Nigeria has caused host communities pain and rights violations, even if they mask it with well-oiled communication.

Ghana forests

Endangered Fish Flood the EU market

  • Environment
  • Fishing industry

BORTIANOR - this investigation brings into the spotlight the export of endangered small pelagic fish from Ghana to the EU. The EC still maintains a yellow card warning for Ghana, while allowing access to the EU market to certain industrial vessels and companies involved in IUU activities within Ghana.

Toxic pesticides. Banned in Europe, dumped in Africa

  • Agriculture
  • Environment
  • Industry

ACCRA - This investigation puts the spotlight on the use of banned pesticides from Europe in rubber farms in Ghana and other regions across the world, while European development banks, the main funder of such projects turn a blind eye to the environmental, health and safety concerns.

Exporting Hazard

  • Economy
  • Environment
  • Industry

ACCRA - ABUJA - The Dark Side of European Used Cars and Parts Trade in West Africa (Ghana and Nigeria)

Second-hand clothes from UK causing pollution in Nigeria and Ghana

  • Economy
  • Environment
  • Industry

ABUJA- This story demonstrates that although it is illegal to import used clothes into Nigeria, UK exporters continue to contravene the law by doing the contrary which is now polluting the country's ecology. It demonstrates how UK exporters provided Nigerian vendors with low-quality, deteriorating clothing, forcing them to burn unsold items in public.

Garbage Out, Garbage In: How Europe’s e-waste problem is a burden on Africa

  • Environment

ACCRA, GHANA - This investigation puts the spotlight on the dumping of e-waste, particularly discarded colling appliances by Europe’s e-waste exporters in Africa in contravention of EU’s law and the Basel Convention while port officials in Europe turn a blind eye to the shipment of these discarded appliances.

How the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons is fueling conflicts in West Africa

  • Armed conflict
  • Corruption
  • Trafficking

ACCRA, ABUJA - This story puts the spotlight on a clandestine network of gunsmiths and arms traffickers operating in West Africa in contravention of local laws. It shows how these gunsmiths and traffickers exploit the porous borders across the West Africa and Sahel region to traffic illicit small arms and light weapons, which continues to fuel conflicts across the region.

Stolen at sea: illegal Chinese transshipment activities in Ghana and Nigeria

  • Corruption
  • Environment
  • Fishing industry

ACCRA, ABUJA – This investigation exposes a hidden network of Chinese control and ownership of many industrial fishing vessels operating in Ghanaian and Nigerian waters in contravention of local laws.

How multinational tech companies exploit tax laws and shift profit: a focus on Ghana and Nigeria

  • Tax evasion
  • Technology

ACCRA, LAGOS - This story identifies the lapses in the current tax systems and how Ghana and Nigeria are dealing with profit shifting and tax avoidance. It exposes how major tech companies, Facebook and Google, use tax havens to avoid payment of taxes in Nigeria and Ghana, depriving these countries of revenue which could be invested in many deprived areas.