Reposition
By Collins Yakubu-Hammer/Anita Eboigbe
Abuja, March 29, 2018 (NAN) Mr Bayo Onanuga, the Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) says the agency is undergoing re-engineering to reposition it for the challenges of the 21st Century as it clocks 40 years.
He said this at the inaugural board meeting of the agency in Abuja.
He added that NAN, which was established in 1976, rolled out its first news bulletin in 1978 would celebrate its 40th anniversary in October.
“NAN, as the biggest News Agency in Africa is quietly undergoing re-engineering to reposition it for the challenges of 21st century and be compliant with world’s best practices,’’ he said.
He said that even in the most trying times largely occasioned by dearth of funds, the reform embarked by the present management was permeating virtually all the departments in the agency.
He said that the reforms were in line with the mission of the agency, which had helped to maintain its position as the leading news agency in Africa.
Onanuga also disclosed that the agency planned to start providing news services in indigenous languages to deepen its reach.
“We have plans to expand our news services by offering them in various languages in Nigeria; I believe that this will further deepen our news dissemination.
“We have several websites which we have launched, however, we also want to launch a photo website soon; I think there are some technical issues that are causing the delay.
“Nevertheless, our plan is to commercialise our photographs to earn additional revenue and make it available to wider audience rather than the full subscribers that we have now,’’ he said.
Onanuga said news services provided by the agency include General, Foreign, Sports, Economic, Agriculture, Entertainment, Tourism and Culture.
He said that the agency was into news exchange and cooperation with other news agency such as Reuters, Xinhua, AFP, among others.
He said the agency was also partnering with UNESCO, United Nation Population Fund, National Bureau of Statistics and many others to achieve its mandate. (NAN)
CMY/AEE/GY
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Edited by Grace Yussuf