The Voice of America on Monday began a four-day entrepreneurial training for practicing journalists and students to promote entrepreneurship development in the country.
The VOA Chief of Hausa Service, Washington DC, Leo Keyen, said in Kaduna that the training would produce journalists with skills and passion for entrepreneurship and business reportage.
Keyen said the training would help in promoting entrepreneurship as a key driver of economic development in order to turn the economic fortune of the country around.
He said Nigeria was blessed with abundant economic resources and huge business opportunities but suffered undue attention from journalists with a lot of business activities unreported.
The VOA chief, however, said that with the necessary skills, journalists could write stories on business that failed and those that had succeeded.
He said that people could learn from their experiences and make informed decision.
Keyen said: “The workshop is organised to train journalists on how to effectively cover and disseminate information on entrepreneurship with focus on prospects, developments, challenges as well as sources of funds.
“We want to build a crop of journalists with skills to interview successful entrepreneurs in order to motivate the unemployed youth in Nigeria to venture into small scale business for self-reliance.
“The training would also expose students of mass communication to entrepreneurial journalism and spur their interest and intellect in promoting businesses activities for sustainable economic growth.”
The Coordinator of the training, Malam Sani Malumfashi, said the training was organised in collaboration with Kaduna State University, with support from Broadcasting Board of Governors.
Malumfashi said in 2015, a similar training was conducted but with focus on spurring entrepreneurship interest among journalists and students.
He noted: “This year, the focus is on effective entrepreneurship and business reportage.”
One of the training facilitators and a media expert, Anslem Okolo, said the training would equip journalists with skills to write stories that would create the desired impact.
Okolo said: “We want journalists to be able to write a stories that would hit audience and propel them to move from a point of no decision to a point of decision and action.”
The Head, Mass Communication Department in KASU, Prof. Suleiman Salau, commended VOA for the efforts, adding that the training would expose the students with the needed skills to make a difference.
