Bloomberg seeks SEC’s support for Africa TV project; starts soft launch July 2013

Real time reportage of Nigeria’s business and financial sector will soon get a boost as the Bloomberg Group from London has commenced activities for the take off of its television station, Bloomberg TV Africa.

The Bloomberg TV. Africa, according to the commercial director, Bloomberg Group, Linsey Olivier, during a visit to Arunma Oteh, director general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Abuja, will be broadcasting live from Lagos business news, economics and financial markets information on Africa. The station which will commence operations in October 2013 would have Lagos as headquarters.

As part of its efforts to prepare for the take-off of the station, the Group was at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) headquarters on Thursday, April 25, 2013, to seek the support and cooperation of the apex capital market regulator in the new venture, TV Africa.

Speaking during the visit to the director-general of SEC, the executive producer, Bloomberg Africa TV., Kieran Baker, said the group already has presence in some other jurisdictions like India and Turkey but now wants to tell the African business and financial stories “straight from source” in order to engender enhanced awareness of the business opportunities in Africa and attract more investors to the continent.

He noted that Bloomberg would leverage its well known integrity in generating and transmitting business data to provide information on Africa to the global market, adding that the station would start with a soft launch in July 2013 with programmes from London which would be followed in October with live transmission from Lagos, its headquarters in Africa.

Speaking further, he said the station would commence with coverage of the financial markets in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya and later spread out to other markets in Africa. He, therefore, solicited the support of the commission as a major regulator in the Nigerian financial industry in the area of giving TV Africa access to business centers and intelligence.

Responding, the director general of SEC, Arunma Oteh, commended the group for coming to Africa and Nigeria in particular, adding that there is no better way of telling Africa’s stories than through presence in Africa.