The Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa (BMIA) has announced expansion of its Financial Journalism Training (FJT) program to Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania, joining Ghana and Zambia where training programs launched earlier this year.
This unique educational offering will support the advancement of financial journalism and contribute to economic development on the continent.
The expansion of the training program to five new countries in Africa follows the success of the program in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, where 568 delegates from 13 countries have graduated to date.
More than 100 delegates will take part in the first intake of the training in the latest three countries to offer the program in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Tanzania.
This will be delivered in collaboration with university partners including; Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Statistique et d’Economie Appliquée d’Abidjan (ENSEA), Université Félix Houphouët- Boigny, Centre Africain d’Etudes Supérieures en Gestion (CESAG), Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar Centre d’Etudes des Sciences et Techniques de l’information (CESTI), University of Dar es Salaam Business School, and the University of Dar es Salaam School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
The expansion to Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal will introduce program to Francophone countries for the first time.
Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies, said: “Reliable, accessible financial reporting is critical to driving sustainable economic growth and good governance. The expansion of the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa to five new countries will significantly further our mission to advance financial journalism and transparency on the continent.”
During the next six months, the delegates will spend 19 days in interactive sessions led by prominent faculty at local universities and will cover topics to strengthen their skills in and understanding of data analysis, capital markets, accounting, public policy, economics and the transforming media landscape.
Financial journalism sessions will be taught by Bloomberg News reporters. Delegates will also receive a free, six-month subscription to the Bloomberg Terminal, offering access to global data,
news and analysis.
“We are very excited to see the start of this new phase of the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa Financial Journalism Training program. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation is proud to partner with Bloomberg in helping equip a global talent pool of journalists with the sort of specialist expertise that can propel them towards attaining a high level of professional excellence. This is the basis of a robust, ethical, independent press, which now seems to be more critical than ever,” said Andreas Dracopoulos, Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).
About Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa
Launched by Mike Bloomberg in South Africa in 2014, the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa (BMIA) is a pan-Africa program designed to accelerate development of a globally competitive media and financial reporting industry as well as promote transparency, accountability and good governance in Africa and beyond. The initiative has four components: It provides cross-disciplinary educational programs to increase the number of highly trained business and financial journalists, as well as supports research to stimulate new media innovations, convene international leaders to promote interactive dialogue and build strong relationships to enhance the quality of financial coverage and the availability of reliable and timely data on the continent.