African News Agency
South Africa’s Sekunjalo Investment Holdings and the AFRICA24 Group have entered into an agreement pairing one of the African continent’s major English-language media houses with one of the biggest media companies in Francophone Africa.
AFRICA24 president and founder Constant Nemale said the two media brands “share a common vision and passion for the African continent”.
“Traditionally, there has been a psychological border between English-speaking and French-speaking Africans. They do not share the same experiences, the same vision and the same news. This partnership builds a bridge, and gives English-speaking and Francophone Africans access to premium news.”
Sekunjalo’s Independent Media group includes 19 quality newspapers across South Africa, the IOL online news platform and a magazine division with titles such as GQ and Glamour, while AFRICA24 is the continent’s leading pan-African television news channel available in 33 predominantly Francophone countries.
“For us at Sekunjalo and Independent Media, this partnership is a great opportunity to collaborate with AFRICA24, which is a pioneering satellite and online television channel that has a huge audience on the African continent,” said Dr Iqbal Survé, executive chairman of Independent Media.
The memorandum of understanding, signed this week in Cape Town, will have the two companies strategically work together on key projects, including:
l Sekunjalo supporting the growth and commercial development of the French-language AFRICA24 television channel and playing a leading role in establishing an AFRICA24 English-language channel.
l The AFRICA24 group supporting the African News Agency (ANA), in which Sekunjalo is an initial investor, to secure multiplatform content syndication partners and subscribers on the continent and with its global networks.
l The AFRICA24 group partnering with ANA in recruiting, training and managing a network of correspondents on the continent.
“This partnership has the potential to be a very strong one. It fits in with our African growth strategy and our efforts to look at a number of acquisitions and partnerships on the continent,” said Dr Survé.
For ANA, the partnership means an immediate content syndication footprint to a channel that reaches the majority of the continent’s Francophone countries, as well as the collaboration and sharing of skills and resources with AFRICA24 subsidiaries.
“Sekunjalo is an investor in the ANA, which is the continent’s first multimedia content syndication news agency, while AFRICA24 is the first pan-African international television news channel of its kind.
“ANA’s vision is the aggregation of quality content and the syndication of multiplatform content, which is an important growth opportunity in new media. It therefore makes a lot of sense for us to work together and helps us to reach our ANA goals much quicker,” said Dr Survé.
Nemale said: “AFRICA24 is proficient in producing quality television content, while Sekunjalo are experts in print media content and technology. These media industry leaders are now merging their vision, ideas, passion and expertise to build something very strong.”
AFRICA24 is the world’s most-watched French-language African television news channel.
It also produces the quarterly AFRICA24 Magazine, catering for an upwardly mobile business audience, and is available 24/7 on live streaming at www.africa24tv.com.