Habeeb Adisa, Editorial Lead at FactCheckAfrica, has been selected for the 2026 UK Media Excellence for Emerging Technology (UK MEET) Fellowship, a programme built to strengthen journalism around emerging technologies, science, and innovation. The fellowship is delivered by Imperial College London through Imperial Global Ghana, with support from the British High Commission, and it is designed for journalists and content creators who want to go deeper than press releases and product announcements. Habeeb’s selection was not a casual or symbolic honour. He was chosen from a pool of more than 500 applicants from Nigeria and Ghana, and only 13 per cent of those who applied were accepted. The organisers made clear that every eligible application was assessed independently by two reviewers, which means his place was earned through a rigorous and genuinely competitive process. In an age when technology is reshaping elections, health systems, labour markets, and public trust, the ability to explain what is actually happening—and what might happen next—has never been more urgent. Habeeb Adisa embodies that urgency. He has spent years working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, information integrity, and democratic governance in West Africa, and this fellowship recognises not just what he has already done, but what he is positioned to do next. For someone who has devoted his professional life to making complex technological issues understandable and holding powerful systems accountable, being selected for a programme designed to strengthen exactly those skills feels less like a reward and more like a continuation of the work he has already begun.
His work on artificial intelligence and information integrity is not confined to newsroom routines or day-to-day fact-checking. Habeeb has also contributed to the scholarly conversation about how AI is governed in West Africa. His research paper, titled “AI Regulation and Democratic Integrity in West Africa: Policy Responses to Data, Platforms, and Misinformation,” appears in the Nigerian Journal of Business and Social Sciences. The study looks closely at AI governance in Nigeria and draws comparisons with Ghana, Senegal, Benin, and the Economic Community of West African States, known as ECOWAS. It explores how artificial intelligence intersects with data protection, electoral misinformation, digital identity, surveillance, and algorithmic bias. These are not abstract academic concerns. In a region where mobile phones and social media have become primary sources of news and political mobilisation, the algorithms that decide what people see can shape whether elections are free and fair, whether minorities are protected, and whether citizens can trust the information they receive. The paper identifies serious gaps in implementation, transparency, and accountability as major obstacles to effective AI governance in the region. Laws may exist on paper, but enforcement is often weak, and oversight mechanisms are frequently underfunded or politically constrained. Habeeb’s research is important because it moves beyond the excitement around technology and asks uncomfortable questions: Who is being protected? Who is being monitored? Who decides what counts as misinformation? And what happens when governments use the language of safety to justify surveillance or control? By examining multiple countries side by side, he shows that these challenges are not isolated national problems, but shared regional dilemmas that require coordinated responses and deeper public understanding.
Yet Habeeb’s work has never been limited to research papers and policy analysis. At FactCheckAfrica, he has helped turn ideas into practical tools and programmes that put artificial intelligence in the service of truth rather than against it. One of the most notable initiatives is MyAIFactChecker, an AI-powered fact-checking tool launched by the organisation to help journalists and citizens verify claims more quickly and effectively. Another is the AI Journalism Fellowship, which was designed to equip journalists across West Africa with the knowledge and skills they need to navigate artificial intelligence in their own reporting. This is not about telling journalists to be afraid of new technology, nor is it about encouraging them to uncritically adopt every new gadget. It is about helping them understand how AI systems work, what their limitations are, and how to use them responsibly in service of accurate, ethical journalism. Habeeb has also worked alongside FactCheckAfrica to strengthen verification skills among journalists and researchers, and to promote media literacy in underserved communities. That last part matters deeply. Misinformation tends to cause the most harm where people have the least access to reliable information and the fewest resources to verify what they see. By focusing on underserved communities, Habeeb is trying to reach people who are often treated as passive consumers of content, rather than as citizens who deserve tools and skills to protect themselves from manipulation. His approach is practical, patient, and rooted in the belief that good journalism is not just about publishing corrections after the damage is done. It is about building resilience in advance, so that falsehoods have less room to spread in the first place.
Beyond his institutional work, Habeeb has also made a direct and lasting impact on the people around him. He has trained more than seven hundred Nigerian students and journalists in fact-checking, giving them practical skills to identify, investigate, and counter misinformation. Seven hundred people is not just a number. It is a network of eyes and ears across the country, a growing community of people who no longer accept suspicious claims at face value and who know how to trace a rumour back to its source, how to verify a viral image, and how to debunk false narratives without amplifying them. Some of those trainees may go on to become professional fact-checkers themselves. Others will carry these skills into classrooms, community centres, newsrooms, and social media pages where they will quietly change the information environment for the better. In many ways, Habeeb has been as much a teacher as an investigator. He has understood that fact-checking is not a solitary craft. It is a public good, and it only works when it is shared. The fact that he has trained students as well as working journalists suggests a long-term vision: he is not just trying to clean up today’s mess of misinformation, but to shape a generation that is more thoughtful, more sceptical, and more responsible about the information they consume and produce. That kind of slow, patient work rarely makes headlines, but it is exactly the kind of work that builds the foundation for healthier democracies.
The UK MEET Fellowship will give Habeeb new opportunities to deepen this work. The in-country residential programme is scheduled to take place in Abuja from October 18 to 24, 2026. During that week, he and the other selected fellows will engage directly with researchers working on artificial intelligence, climate technology, health technology, and other emerging fields. These are not areas that can be covered responsibly from a distance. To report on climate technology, for example, a journalist needs to understand the underlying science, the promises and limitations of new tools, and the political and economic interests that shape their deployment. The fellowship is designed to provide that kind of immersive learning. It will also feature practical sessions on verifying technological claims, identifying relevant data, investigating beyond official statements, and translating complex scientific issues into accessible stories. Those skills are especially valuable at a time when governments and corporations increasingly make sweeping claims about what technology can do, and when journalists are expected to cover fast-moving developments without being fooled by hype. The programme will also include editorial clinics, where participants will develop their own story pitches with support from experienced editors, focusing on refining angles, identifying credible sources, and establishing realistic publication plans. This is not a passive conference where people sit in lectures and collect certificates. It is a working fellowship, designed to produce concrete stories and deeper reporting capacity.
Following the residential programme, fellows who demonstrate strong application of the training and develop rigorous story pitches will be considered for a UK Knowledge Exchange in London in late November 2026. Those selected will engage with researchers at Imperial College London and gain first-hand insight into the science behind their proposed stories. For Habeeb, this fellowship offers a chance to build on his existing work in AI research and fact-checking while deepening his capacity to investigate emerging technologies and their consequences for African societies. It also places him in a broader international network of journalists who are thinking seriously about how to cover science and technology with accuracy, humility, and purpose. For West Africa, a region where technology is spreading faster than institutions can regulate it, reporters like Habeeb are essential bridges between complex research and public understanding. The fellowship will not make him an expert in every field overnight, but it will give him the tools, contacts, and confidence to ask better questions and to keep learning. And in the end, that is what good journalism has always been about. If his past work is any guide, the stories he brings back from Abuja and London will not be about technology for its own sake. They will be about people—about who benefits, who is left behind, and how ordinary citizens can make sense of a world that keeps changing. That is the kind of reporting that deserves more support, and it is the kind of reporting that gives hope for the future of informed public debate in Africa and beyond.