Bloomberg gives $10 million to improve business journalism in Africa

Michael Bloomberg, the founder of Bloomberg LP and a billionaire, announced Monday that he is giving $10 million in an attempt to improve financial journalism in Africa.

The Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa will provide cross disciplinary education programs and mid-career fellowships to increase the number of highly-trained business and financial journalists, convene pan-African forums to examine worldwide media best practices and support research to stimulate media innovations.

Bloomberg will partner with faculty from the University of Nairobi’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications and Strathmore Business School in Kenya; the University of Lagos’s Department of Mass Communications and the Pan Atlantic University’s Lagos Business School in Nigeria; and the Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies and the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science in South Africa.

“By providing rigorous training from best-in-class faculty, media professionals and other stakeholders from the South, East and West African countries, the initiative will positively impact transparency, accountability, good governance and sustainable economic growth on the continent,” said Ralph A. Akinfeleye, professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Lagos, in a statement.

Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa will also provide scholarships to the next generation of media professionals and experiential training opportunities to graduate students.

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