VON, Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation sign MoU on information sharing

The Voice of Nigeria (VON) and the Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on information and content sharing to promote the image of Africa to the world.

The two organisations signed the MoU at the headquarters of VON in Abuja.
Mr Osita Okechukwu, Director-General, Voice of Nigeria (VON), said that the MoU would promote pan-Africanism and strengthen cordial relations with other African countries.

“We are trying to strengthen the bond of pan-Africanism started by our brothers- the late prime minister, Sir Tafawa Balewa, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Julius Nyerere.

“Those were the pan-Africanists and we want to continue what they started.
“We, in Voice of Nigeria, are on eight languages, one of which is Swahili.

“We are trying to add China because we are trying to look at the world on a global scale, we are trying to cover, as much as we can, the six geo-time zones of the earth.

“So that wherever you are in the world, you will hear the perspective of the African story.

“We have tried to establish from all our feedback that it is not all bad that is going on in Africa; that there is a lot of good work in Africa and in Nigeria,” Okechukwu said.

Dr Ayub Chacha, the Director-General of TBC, said the MoU was to re-establish links and cooperation with the VON to promote Africa from an African perspective.

“We came for one important purpose- to reestablish links, among other things, to continue promoting the Swahili.

“This is an African language spoken widely on the continent; it is the tenth widely spoken language globally and, in Africa, it is the second widely spoken language after Arabic.

“We are proud that Nigeria has had many ways to promote the Swahili apart from the Swahili Programme on Voice of Nigeria and various universities where Swahili is taught at degree levels.

“That is one area we would like to cooperate with the Voice of Nigeria to promote Swahili.

“We will also like to make sure that we have an exchange of contents; contents produced by ourselves Africans, from our own perspectives, be it news or other contents,” Chacha said.

Similarly, Dr Benson Bana, High Commissioner of Tanzania to Nigeria, who appreciated VON for it’s efforts during the Pan-African struggle, said the collaboration with the VON would educate people all over the world about Africa.

“We started with this initiative, trying to link the two organisations for the betterment of educating.

“And for inspiring Africans in totality and, by doing so, promoting the Nigeria-Tanzania bilateral ties,” Bana said. (NAN)