The News Agency of Nigeria will soon start transmission in vernacular to widen its reach.
The Managing Director of the news agency, Malam Ali M. Ali, disclosed the plan when he spoke in Abuja on Tuesday.
Ali, during a courtesy visit to Dr. Aminu Wada, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, said the 48-year-old agency would start with the nation’s three major languages: Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa.
According to him, the Hausa transmission, christened NANHausa, will soon come on stream, with the others to follow soon.
He said: “The goal is to reach everywhere.
“We want to bring in everyone.
This is the digital era.
“It is the information age.
“We do not want anyone left out.”
Ali said that the agency would soon start the broadcast of its news services as its licence would soon be put to use.
The NAN MD added: “We have a broadcast licence that has been lying fallow.
“We shall put it to use and start broadcasting the services we offer.”
Ali said that the visit was to solicit partnership with the NCC since both outfits were communication giants.
He said: “By partnering with NAN, NCC shall be working with the largest media outlet in Africa.
“We have a lot of products and services and shall make them available to NCC once this partnership comes on stream.”
He listed the major services to include PR Wire Service, Photos, Archives, SMS and Features.
The Managing Director said that NAN would soon open district offices in every Senatorial District, while foreign offices closed down owing to paucity of funds would soon be reopened.
According to him, the London Office would soon be reopened, followed by those in Ethiopia, Cote d’Ivoire and Eastern Europe.
He said that NAN was being expanded to compete favourably with its counterparts like Reuters, AP, Xinhua and AFP.
He commended Wada for achieving so much within a short time.
Ali particularly commended NCC’s increased interface with the media, pointing out that the measure had widened its reach and made its services more accessible to Nigerians.
In his remarks, Wada said that NAN occupies “a very important space in the media value chain.
“NAN is everywhere.
