A new class of financial journalists and professionals interested in financial journalism has begun its Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa (BMIA) Executive Training Program 2015.

The program, which is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, with additional support from the Ford Foundation, brings together the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), Lagos Business School, University of Lagos and three other preeminent business and journalism schools in Africa, to offer journalists and other mid-career professionals the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge about financial and economic reporting.

A new development to the program, which commenced in April 2015, sees participants having access to the Bloomberg Professional service, or terminal, for six months.

The Bloomberg terminal is a software platform providing the world’s most trusted real-time and historical data, market-moving news and analytics to help business and financial professionals make better informed investment decisions.

The service also features execution platforms for every asset class, independent research and a global network to communicate securely and reliably with.

The 325,000 subscribers to the service include investment firms, corporations, commercial and central banks, government agencies and high net-worth individuals.

 “With the real-time flow of data and information through the Bloomberg terminal, the student experience is significantly enriched.  Most investors, brokers, reporters and government decision-makers find access to the terminal indispensable. Student access to the terminal is invaluable,” said Dr Lucy Voss-Price, the program director.

“The Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa (BMIA) is designed to increase the number of journalists , government and civil society professionals  equipped  to strengthen the contribution of business and financial media to the sustainable development of Africa,” says Erana Stennett, BMIA Program Director.  “We are encouraged by the interests and enthusiasm in the program and believe the graduates of this training will be well equipped to make a greater contribution to transparency, governance and accountability,” she added.

The six-month certificate program has been developed primarily for mid-career journalists – especially those with an interest in moving into financial journalism, financial professionals with an interest in financial journalism, government professionals responsible for public policy, communications and banking or financial specialists, civil society and NGO professionals with a stake in the communication of economic and financial data.

The program consists of four intakes and applications for the third intake will open in August 2015.

Joey Mathekga, head of Corporate Disclosure Regulation and Compliance at the Companies and Intellectual Property Organisation (CIPC) said: “Attending the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa training allowed me to recognize the importance of data, in terms of reviewing, analyzing and making informed commentary from financial statements. As part of my job I now have the responsibility of reviewing financial statements with regards to capital markets. It is no longer about a tick-box method but a contextual approach to supervision.”

Interested parties who possess a recognised tertiary qualification (degree or diploma) and have experience in journalism or a related field are encouraged to apply on www.gibs.co.za/bmia or email [email protected] for further information.

Founded in 2000, the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) is an internationally accredited business school, based in Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic hub.

As the business school for business, we focus on general management in dynamic markets to significantly improve responsible individual and organisational performance, primarily in the South African environment and increasingly in our broader African environment, through the provision of high quality business and management education.

In May 2015 the annual UK Financial Times Executive Education rankings, a global benchmark for providers of executive education, once again ranked GIBS as the top South African and African business school.

In October 2014 the GIBS MBA was ranked among the top 100 business schools globally in the prestigious Financial Times Executive MBA Rankings.

GIBS is the only business school in Africa to appear in this ranking.

GIBS is accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA), the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and is a member of the South African Business Schools Association (SABSA), the Association of African Business Schools (AABS) and the European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS).

Also and aunched by Michael R. Bloomberg in 2014, the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa (BMIA) is a three-year pan-African program that will provide cross disciplinary education programs to strengthen business and economic media capacity, convene African and international leaders to examine worldwide best practices in financial journalism, and improve access to information in order to advance transparency, accountability and governance on the continent.