Nigeria's Financial journalism centre takes off

By Seye Joseph @seyetweets

Journalists who want to enhance their skills in business reporting now have a centre where they can acquire relevant knowledge on financial, business and economy reporting.
The Centre for Financial Journalism was launched on Thursday in Lagos to provide specialized training and conduct cutting edge research on financial journalism with a view to raising the standard of practice of financial journalism in the country.
The inaugural lecture of the centre titled “The Nigerians Economy in Distress: Policy Choices for Buhari’s administration” was delivered by Prof. Akpan H. Ekpo, Director General, West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management.
According to the founder/CEO of the Centre, Ray Echebiri there is need for journalists to be retrained for them to compete with their counterparts globally and to always be on top of their game.
“The skill gap in financial journalism in Nigeria was long identified to the extent that it has started affecting how financial, business and economy report are being reported in the country.
“With this centre now, we are going to ensure that journalists are trained in different aspects of financial journalism with a view to sharpen their knowledge and understanding of the dynamics of the Nigerian economy,” he said.
Emphasizing the objectives of the centre, Echebiri said it will provide training services for financial journalists and other stakeholders in financial journalism, mentoring of new entrants into the field of financial journalism and raising a significant number of highly-skilled financial journalists.
The centre will also provide research services on financial journalism from stakeholders, especially newspapers magazines, television stations, radio stations, news agencies, online publications, business organization, government agencies and international agencies;
“We are going to advance financial journalism in Nigeria through training programs, seminars, workshops, lectures and conferences. We will be exploring opportunities for partnership with individuals, local and international organizations that are committed to raising the quality of financial journalism,” he stated.
Chairman of the occasion was President Centre for Values and leadership, Professor Pat Utomi who commended the initiative of setting up the centre and urged journalists be committed to learning new skills.

The Directors of the centre include Ernest Ebi, Chairman, Prof. Akpan Ekpo, Dr. Uju Ogubunka, a Chartered Banker; Dr. Oladimeji Isreal Alo, Management Consultant; Bukola Onifade, an Economist and Financial Management Expert; and Ray Echebiri, the CEO.