Firms target global media platforms for African capital market – Voices of the African Continent (VOTAC), and Premium Times, have announced a strategic alliance that will create a platform for news coverage of African capital markets.
By providing a global media platform, VOTAC, in collaboration with Premium Times will produce African Capital Market, ACM TODAY, a financial news programme, live-streamed from studios in San Francisco, United States, and Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
About 29 stock exchanges representing 54 countries (markets), account for $2.5 trillion of the nominal gross domestic product (GDP) as estimated in 2019, with economic growth at 3.4 per cent, growth is expected to hit 3.9 per cent in 2020, and 4.1 per cent in 2021 (AfDB, 2020).
ACM TODAY will also be carried on U.S. cable networks reaching 33 million television households; and will be available on local television channels in these U.S. media markets: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York Tri-State Area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut).
ACM TODAY is designed to aid innovation, increase foreign direct investment, and economic mobility on the continent.
The programme will ensure transparency in market activities and data and ensure the broadcast standards that consumers of financial news are.
The platform will also offer subject matter experts, industry and market analysts, commentators, and investigative and financial news journalists with in-depth knowledge of Africa, guided by professional disciples.
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For more than a century, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa was almost exclusively focused on the extraction and export of natural resources.
But since the turn of the millennium, the momentum has shifted. In the past few years, the trend has finally flipped. Global investors now come to Africa for the promise of its people than for its physical properties.
Petroleum and mining now count for a minority of long-term capital inflows, with more investors focused on technology, telecommunications, retailing and services.
The extractive industries have accounted for more than half of FDI just once in the past seven years. Africa’s labour force is projected to be nearly 40 percent larger by 2030. Africa’s infrastructure financing needs are estimated to be $130–$170 billion a year (EY, 2020).
VOTAC Proprietor, Abraham Tuyo, said: “We are proud of our partnership with VOTAC. The African Diaspora is going to play a critical role in Africa’s civil and economic transformation. Already, Nigeria’s Diaspora remittances are the nation’s second largest source of foreign exchange.
“In addition to their resources, the Diaspora brings their energy, experience, and networks, which combined with the local know-how of domestic institutions is certain to create value on the continent. “
Publisher, Premium Times, Dapo Olorunyomi, said: “In Premium Times, we have a partner with deep roots and history in investigative journalistic excellence. We believe Africa and Africans need to take charge of news reporting economic activities on the continent; Global readership of Premium Times is proof that Africa and Africans produce news stories on par with the rest of the world.