Voice of Nigeria, VON, has announced plans to resume the German Language Service and strengthen ties with Deutsche Welle (DW) for global broadcasting.
The German language service was introduced in Voice of Nigeria in the 1980s as part of an expansion of the station’s international broadcasts.
The Director General of Voice of Nigeria, VON, Malam Jibrin Baba Ndace, made this known when he paid a courtesy call on the German Ambassador to Nigeria, Annett Günther, in Abuja.
He commended the government of Germany for supporting the station
In the 1980s, there was a strong and strategic collaboration between Deutsche Welle (DW) and VON.
He stressed that “these partnerships were in the areas of staff exchanges, training, content creation, and capacity building in specialised areas of comparative advantage.”
Malam Ndace said, “Part of the innovations put in place is to also revive and reinvigorate the short-wave transmitters for wider, cleaner, and sharper frequency for external global broadcasting.”
The Director General said he wants to “reactivate the relationship between DW
and VON, especially in the areas of staff exchange and capacity
building.”
He emphasised the need to reconnect Voice of Nigeria with the embassy as well as Radio DW to support each other in terms of content generation, exchange programmes, and many areas of mutual benefit.
Malam Baba Ndace reiterated the need to tackle misinformation and disinformation to safeguard society against fake news in the collaboration between VON and DW.
“The rising cases of disinformation and misinformation are sending fake news about individual countries, and Voice of Nigeria is ready to provide its platforms to change the narrative,” he said.
Malam Baba Ndace also said that “Voice of Nigeria will soon begin broadcasting in Mandarin for VON listeners in China… The station is looking ahead to subsequently broadcasting in Dutch to tell the Nigerian story to other parts of the world.”
The German Ambassador in Nigeria, Annett Günther, thanked the Director.
General for the visit.
Ambassador Günther said, “The embassy is very much interested in working with VON to achieve its set objective and for the benefit of Nigeria and Germany.”
The ambassador said, “There will be more training for the Nigerian journalists on election coverage and reporting.”
Voice of Nigeria and the radio Deutsche Welle (DW) have an established, ongoing bilateral relationship that focuses on cooperation, technical assistance, content production, and staff exchange.
The bilateral relationship aims to promote socio-economic advancement
and address shared challenges as well as progress in the media industry.