The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) network, in recognition of the place of the media, generally and, journalism in particular, in entrenching good governance, sustenance of democracy, and ensuring a conducive climate for investment and economic development, organized a Capability Enhancement Workshop for Journalists in Lagos, last weekend.

Uyi Akpata, country senior partner, Nigeria and Regional Senior partner for PwC West Market Area, said the initiative was in recognition of this indispensable role of the media especially in the areas of finance and business reporting.

The workshop, in its second year, was developed to help financial journalists improve the contribution they make in terms of their reporting and to ensure an in-depth analysis of the subject, he said.

The workshop had a rich outline of topics including Understanding & Reporting the Budget; Economy and Monetary Policy; the Oil & Gas Value Chain and Impact on Crude oil & gas pricing; Governance & Corporate Reporting; ICT as a major advancement tool in Nigerian Media Practice. Business reporting is particularly challenging for journalists because it is an extremely diverse area involving a complex and technical range of issues covering policy, tax, economics, finance, governance as well as financial reporting.

According to Akpata, “We recognise that it takes extreme care and skill to get a business story right, and convey it to the public in a manner that is factually accurate, yet comprehensible and easy to understand. We are therefore partnering with the media to demonstrate our commitment to high-quality journalism in Nigeria”.

Key Take Away from the Workshop

Understanding and Reporting the Budget

According to Taiwo Oyedele, partner, head of Tax & Regulatory Services, PwC, aligned with the school of thought that budget is the second most important document of a country next only to the Constitution.

He defined a budget as “simply a plan of revenue and expenditure over a specified period of time. It provides the framework on which the government’s key policy agenda is built and implemented. Given the federal system of government in Nigeria, detail allocation of revenue and resources across the different tiers of government as well as government departments, ministries and agencies is part of the budgeting process”.

He therefore, said that the budget is an important tool for identifying sources of revenue, allocate the scarce resources in an efficient manner, and ensure effective implementation of the strategic goals that should improve the welfare of the people. “In terms of transparency and accountability, the budget provides a framework to measure the performances of political office holders and for stakeholders and the public in general to demand accountability for the resources of the country. Legal bases and reality check Based on the law, the Constitution requires that there must be a budget.

“Section 81(1) provides that the President shall cause to be prepared and laid before each House of the National Assembly at any time in each financial year estimates of the revenues and expenditure of the Federation for the next following financial year.

“In section 81(2), the heads of expenditure contained in the estimates (other than expenditure charged upon the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation by this Constitution) shall be included in a bill, to be known as an Appropriation Bill (that is, Budget), providing for the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the sums necessary to meet that expenditure and the appropriation of those sums for the purposes specified therein. The Fiscal Responsibility Act also requires a cash plan and schedule of disbursement within 30 days of enactment of Appropriation Act.

“In addition, quarterly reports are to be prepared within 30 days of the end of each quarter.

“Unfortunately in reality, the budget is usually presented late by the Executive with further delays in debate between the executive and legislature on less important issues bordering on benchmark oil price rather than revenue generation. Also, very little information is provided regarding actual implementation.

“Salient Questions and Food for thought. Certain questions must be addressed for change to happen rather than sustaining the status quo.

“These include: 1. why do we start our budget from a zero base every year? What happens to the unspent amounts from previous years due to budget under-performance?

“3 2. Why do we not subject actual implementation to value for money audit? The question is whether what “it is” is as good as “what could have been”. 3. Should Nigeria continue to depend on crude oil to drive our budget? How do we diversify our source of revenue? 4. How do we ensure that the budget is prepared and approved timely and actually serves its purpose and not just a “tick-the-box” exercise.

Concluding Thoughts

When analysing the budget, journalists must be able to read between the lines. It is often what has not been said that is more important that what was actually said; Learn to connect the dots from one period to another and also with respect to different components even within the same budget. For instance, it will be useful to relate Debt to GDP ratio versus debt service to total revenue; budget deficit and capital expenditure; subsidy and oil benchmark etc and The media needs to track performance and report over the entire period not just during the budgeting process; Tell a story, give statistics, and a balanced perspective.

Also, ensure accuracy of information, do research, speak to experts; Ask the right questions even if they are difficult  and Be creative, give substance -don’t just collate information We hope there will be a positive change in our approach to Budgeting as a nation with significant improvement in level of implementation and ultimately transparency and accountability.

ICT: A Major Advancement Tool in Nigerian Media Practice

Mr. Joseph Iruafemi, business/lead strategist, Web-Fair Solutions and co-director, Founders Institute, urged media practitioners to embrace modern technologies to enhance their performances.

Iruafemi said that with software, virtual newsrooms are possible; where news-gathering and editing are done real-time through collaborative-editing tools, cloud-sources, between the reporter and the editor.

He added that with iReports, news platforms in the country have empowered the people to be part of the news gathering, although authentication of the news credibility has posed greater challenge.

On news dissemination, he said with over 90 million Nigerians having access to the internet, searching for credible news, the onus falls on the professional journalists to harness the opportunity to better their worth, while repositioning the nation in the comity of new world information order (NWIO).

“Is it possible for us to have a website that coverts words to audio, because most young people prefer to listen to audio to reading letters/words. We are in an era of software for micro-contents; where media houses partner the telecoms on additional news contents dissemination. This will help in expanding the horizons of the media and the readership will broaden,” he suggested.

He further urged the participants not to allow the social media to wrestle the pen from their hands, adding that authentication of reports and analytical reports would always endear the conventional media to the readers’ heart.