Bloomberg’s ABMI Forum Advances Business Journalism in Africa and Globally
Leaders from diverse fields such as media, business, government, technology, and community sectors will gather in Cape Town, South Africa, for the annual Africa Business Media Innovators (ABMI) forum from October 30 to November 1.
Co-hosted by M. Scott Havens, CEO of Bloomberg Media, Matthew Winkler, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Bloomberg News, and Erana Stennett, Corporate Philanthropy Middle East and Africa at Bloomberg, this event marks a return to in-person meetings after a hiatus since 2019.
ABMI, now in its sixth edition, has previously been hosted in Senegal (2019), Zambia (2018), Ghana (2017), Kenya (2016), and South Africa (2015). The forum will focus on the future of media and journalism in Africa and worldwide.
Scott Havens, CEO of Bloomberg Media, stated, “Against the backdrop of a fragmented global media landscape and challenges to business models at both a local and global level, this forum provides an opportunity for fresh approaches, ideas, and solutions to building sustainable media business models in Africa and beyond.”
Matthew Winkler, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Bloomberg News, emphasised ABMI’s role in catalysing investment, growth, and development by contributing to the strengthening of business and financial reporting in Africa.
This year’s gathering will tackle themes such as the impact of new technologies, AI, and evolving work structures in newsrooms. It will also address the sustainability of legacy media in Africa amid growing global competition.
Prominent speakers at the forum will include Tomiwa Aladekomo, CEO of Big Cabal; Styli Charalambous, CEO of Daily Maverick; and Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, Co-Founder and CEO of Rappler, among others.
The ABMI forum is a component of the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa (BMIA), a program established by Michael R. Bloomberg in 2014 to advance business journalism in Africa and boost the development of a globally competitive media and financial reporting industry.
This initiative offers cross-disciplinary educational programmes and mid-career fellowships to enhance the quality of financial coverage and the availability of timely data on the continent. It also fosters relationships and dialogue among leaders to stimulate innovation in media.
Bloomberg has recently expanded its executive education programme in business and financial journalism to Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal, offering it in French for the first time and reaching over 800 participants from 16 African countries to date.
Source: Bloomberg
