Chevron Nigeria Ltd., in partnership with the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Lagos State Council, on Monday organised a one-day capacity building for some journalists in the state. The capacity building had the theme: ‘Enhancing Business and Economy: The Role of the Media.’ The Chairman of Lagos State Council of NUJ, Mr Adeleye Ajayi, said at the event that the capacity building was part of the council’s resolve to help in the development of journalism in Lagos State. Ajayi thanked Chevron Nigeria for the partnership. He said that the council would not take the sponsorship of the training for granted. Ajayi urged the participants to make maximum use of the training to sharpen their skills in business reporting and agenda setting. A resource person, Mrs Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma, who is a Senior Editor at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), called for regular training and re-training of journalists for greater effectiveness. Joel-Nwokeoma, also the Chairman of the Capital Market Correspondents Association of Nigeria, said that it was important for journalists to understand well their beats of coverage. She said that capital and money markets were important for economic growth and required effective coverage. Joel-Nwokeoma delivered a paper entitled: ‘Money and Capital Markets in Transforming the Economy (Media Perspective)’. She called on media organisations to ensure regular and effective training of journalists covering capital and money markets. She said, ‘This is to ensure that journalists covering the beats understand the dynamics of the beats in order to avoid sending wrong information to the public.’ On the role of money and capital markets in the Nigerian economy, Joel-Nwokeoma said that both markets had different but complementary roles in economic growth and development. According to her, money market supports liquidity management, ensuring that businesses and governments meet their short-term obligations. She said that this would instill confidence in the financial system. ‘Capital market is vital for economic growth. It channels long-term resources to enterprises and governmental entities, facilitating infrastructure development, business expansion and technological advancement,’ she said. On the roles of the media in the development of money and capital markets, Joel-Nwokeoma said the roles included informing the public on the rudiments of both markets and educating the public on them. ‘The media can help in getting more companies to list or embrace the markets through analysis of the benefits of listings, setting agenda for the Federal Government and the regulators. ‘We are talking of huge debt profile because government is not maximising the opportunities in both markets, especially the capital market,’ she said. Mr Tajudeen Atitebi, also a resource person at the event, urged journalists to study sectoral allocations of national and state annual budgets. Atitebi, the Publisher of Global Business News, presented a paper entitled: ‘Interpreting The Budget’. He urged journalists to find out whether sectoral allocations conformed to international benchmarks. Atitebi said that budget estimates could be padded, adding that journalists must scrutinise past budgets estimates to ensure that previous provisions were not embedded in the current budget estimates. He said that the success or otherwise of any government budget implementation would depend on ‘how realistic the budget assumptions are’. ‘Journalists must study the budget enough to know how much allocated to the different sectors. ‘Budget assumptions in Nigeria, particularly in the Federal Government’s budget, are the projected crude oil production level in the budget year, the projected crude oil price on which the budget is predicted, and projected Naira exchange rate for the budget year. ‘When writing stories, journalists must be aware that budgets are always full of figures; so, they should not bore their readers with too much statistics,’ he said. In a paper he presented on ‘Maritime Economy and Harnessing the Nation’s Potential,’ a veteran journalist, Dr Ovie Edomi, said that the nation could export fish, crayfish, cocoa and timber and earn much foreign exchange if maritime and blue economy could collaborate. He said that many lakes and Islands in Nigeria could be turned to maritime sites in order to grow the economy. He said, ‘If we are able to train more people in taking up seafaring jobs, it will help us greatly. ‘If after 63 years of independence, we cannot harness all these resources for national growth and development, I would not know how to describe the independence we have,’ he said.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria