Now in its 52nd programme, the Union of African Journalists brought together 25 media specialists from across the continent to take part in a three-week training course.
Based in Cairo, Egypt, the training programme covers various topics that promote the enhancement of Africa through tackling the issues faced and finding solutions.
During the first week, journalists spent time at the Training and Media Studies Centre in lectures with esteemed professors from across Egypt to discuss topics such as Chinese and African relations, African culture and its economic impact, the benefits of e-governments, hydraulic challenges, the African press, sustainable development and the role of infrastructure for inter-African co-operation.
The secretary-general of the Africa Society, Ahmed Haggag, who is also the former Egyptian ambassador to Kenya, spoke on the topic of African and Chinese relations, encouraging African countries to invest in their local products.
“We should be proud that Africa is furnishing the world with good coffee from Ethiopia, chocolate from Ivory Coast and teas from Kenya and Uganda.
"When some African countries succeed in cultivating tea, many others are in competition with them and the result is overproduction and lowering of prices,” Haggag said.
He said it was important for African countries to have cartels such as that of oil production.
“The Middle East, Russia and some African countries have a mechanism when they see overproduction. They put the breaks on this to keep the price, internationally, at a certain level which will bring the best advantages to the countries.”
Haggag said the competition among African countries was destabilising and encouraged countries to import from each other and enhance progression on the continent.
Justice Dr Hanafi Ali Gebali, president of the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC), discussed the upcoming third African conference on judicial system co-operation.
The president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has endorsed the establishment of a website to connect the African judiciaries.
This weekend the journalists will take a break from the lectures and travel to Alexandria, the second-largest city in Egypt.
Countries taking part in the programme include Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, Gambia, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Niger, Djibouti and Angola, among others.