Broadcaster Launches Mentorship and Internship Scheme for Budding Journalists

Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye, BBC’s Head of West Africa, says BBC shall be big on original journalism that impacts the lives of Nigerians at home and abroad.

Broadcaster Launches Mentorship and Internship Scheme for Budding Journalists

By Khalifa Hemed
Published March 23, 2018

Jamie Angus, Director of BBC World Service, says BBC delivers accurate, impartial and independent news to all countries. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has opened a new bureau in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos as it plans to launch a mentorship and internship scheme for up-and-coming journalists in West Africa.

BBC, that broadcasts in English, Hausa, Igbo, Pidgin and Yoruba across Nigeria, Says it has created more than 100 new jobs in Lagos where its new ‘state-of-the-art TV studio and two radio studios and can house up to 200 people’.

Jamie Angus, Director of the BBC World Service, announced at the launch event for the bureau that it will be the headquarters for BBC’s operation across West Africa.

“The World Service delivers accurate, impartial and independent news to all countries,” Angus said, promising that BBC shall “remain your most trusted source of news in the years to come.”

Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye, BBC’s Head of West Africa, said BBC “will be big on original journalism that impacts the lives of Nigerians at home and abroad. We are expanding our editorial offer to cover politics, culture, business, health [and] investigations. We will focus more on young people and women, ensuring that we cover Nigeria and the whole of West Africa like never before.”

BBC is also joining forces with Channels Television on Connect Africa, a new weekly half hour programme in English which will launch later in 2018. This will be a live current affairs show focusing on the stories behind the news, with audience interaction via social media and from a studio audience, BBC, that broadcasts on radio, television and online, says.

BBC says it is set to launch more new TV programming for Africa later in 2018 in English, Hausa, French and Kiswahili, with some of the TV teams joining the Lagos bureau. This, BBC says, will include programmes about sports, business, and entertainment, satire, a women’s programme, a programme for 10-16 year olds, and investigative documentaries.

Saying the new programmes “will offer other local independent producers the chance to be involved in co-productions and BBC commissions,” BBC says its international news currently reaches 36 million people in Nigeria.