NAN pledges to deepen partnership with Francophone countries
Partnership
By Fortune Abang/Mark Longyen
Abuja, June 13, 2024 (NAN) The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has pledged to partner with French-speaking countries leveraging the agency’s wide reach.
The Managing Director of the agency, Malam Ali Muhammad Ali, pledged NAN’s partnership in Abuja on Thursday when he received in his office a delegation of francophone countries’ ambassadors in Nigeria, led by their Chairman and Bulgarian Ambassador to Nigeria, Yanko Yordanov.
According to him, such partnerships will enhance media and diplomatic relations between their countries and Nigeria.
Ali noted that NAN has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and that more would be done to deepen relations with other Francophone countries.
“Your team’s visit here is the first of its kind to the agency; it is a pioneering record under your leadership.
“Beyond speaking French, it is important for us as an agency to understand and speak more than one language. It is crucial for some of us in the agency to understand and speak French.
“So we are ready to partner, not just for the language. As a management, I think we will make it a policy now for all the directors to learn French.
“It is in the vanguard of the promotion of democracy, protection of human rights, and universal rights and franchise that we have a sole aim in the agency,” he said.
Ali told the visitors that the agency has also established partnerships with many media and wire service organisations worldwide.
He listed some of them as Reuters, AFP, Russian News Agency, and Xhinua of China.
He added that the agency has plans to revive its operations in French-speaking countries.
“Our reform in the agency is to open some of our offices in French-speaking countries. We have one office in Cote d’Ivoire; we want to send our reporters to places like that and other Francophone places.
“I am sure with the partnership with ambassadors of Francophone countries, it will be a lot easier to project Africa more to the rest of the world.
“NAN is the biggest media organisation on the continent, and we used to have foreign offices across the continent.
“Up to this moment, we are the only resident media organisation from West Africa that is in the United Nations.
“We have offices in New York and Johannesburg. So this is a partnership we dearly welcome. I am positive that through partnership with Francophone countries, we will go places.
“I do not doubt that a new chapter in the history of Francophone countries interfacing with Anglophone, especially Nigeria being the leader, is opened and the group will go places,” Ali said.
Speaking earlier on behalf of his colleagues, Amb. Yordanov explained that the group comprised 25 members, saying that ‘La Francophone’ is mostly associated with the French language.
He said that the idea and mission of the group is to promote democracy, the rule of law, and all the human values protecting the rights of all and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals, as defined by the United Nations.
“So as you see, a group that is promoting democracy is logically cooperating with the largest democracy in Africa.
“At the same time, we believe that when it comes to democracy, the media is one of the most important indicators we have.
“So we decided to engage with NAN as the largest news agency in Africa and a great partner of many of us bilaterally.
“We will be very grateful if we can explore more opportunities for cooperation,” Yordanov said.
NAN reports that the delegation included the French Charge d’Affairs, Jean-Francois Hasperue; Tunisian Ambassador, Mohsen Antit; Republic of Congo Ambassador, Fernand Ondako.
Others were Republic of Guinea Ambassador, Siaka Cissoko; Ivory Coast’s First Counsellor, Cisse Karim; and Bulgarian Counsellor, Margarita Nikolova. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
FDA/YEN/YEE
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(Edited by Mark Longyen/Emmanuel Yashim)
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