21st July, 2017
Mr Bayo Onanuga, the Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday restated the commitment of the agency to the training of its members of staff on data journalism.
Onanuga, represented by Mrs Adijat Lawal, the Director, Finance and Account of NAN, said this
at a one-day training on Data and Infographics Journalism organised by Code for Africa in collaboration with Google in Abuja.
He said the training programme was designed to improve the quality of the agency’s news content, as well as enhance the Information and Communication Technology capacity of its staff generally.
The managing director also said that the training would expose staff to contemporary instruments of ICT with specific exposure to application of Google ICT tools
He noted that the demand of the news environment and needs of NAN subscribers was changing very rapidly, adding that the agency could only remain relevant by keeping pace with development.
“ It is in this regard that the agency is mounting this training to further equip and strengthen our editors, reporters and other members of staff with modern tools of data and infographics journalism.
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“ The management is expanding the training to include a wider spectrum of staff to build the necessary critical mass of manpower in the Editorial and other Departments in the drive to ensure deeper ICT compliance.
“ This belief has informed the involvement of staff drawn from three Zonal Offices in the North in the believe that those trained will rapidly share their knowledge with others,’’ he said.
Onanuga, who disclosed that similar training would be conducted in Lagos on July 29, urged all participants to take advantage of the programme to improve their capacity for better service delivery.
The NAN boss, however, expressed deep appreciation of NAN management to Google and Code for Africa for their assistance to the agency.
“As Oliver Twists, we shall continue to ask for more technical support for the agency in terms of training and technical facilities,’’ Onanuga said.
The Country Lead, Code for Nigeria, Miss Nkechi Okwuone expressed optimism that the training programme would improve the capacity of NAN staff on the application of modern tools in journalism.
NAN reports that Code for Africa (CfAfrica) is Africa’s largest data journalism and civic technology initiative, operating Citizen Labs across the continent to help fast-track digital skills in journalism.