The Managing Director of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr Bayo Onanuga, said the agency was being repositioned to meet global standard and be able to cope with the industry’s challenges.
Onanuga stated this on Saturday in Kaduna while addressing members of staff of the agency in the North-West zone.
He said that his mission in NAN as the chief executive was to restore the agency to its position as the major news provider that broke the news first.
He said that the world had gone digital and that NAN must be reposition in that direction to meet local and global demand on it for quality and reliable services.
Onanuga pointed out that there was currently a high competition in the information business as everybody had become a newsmaker and publishers.
He assured that management of the agency would equip staff with necessary tools to ensure efficiency, adding that he was in the zone to intimate the staff on the new direction of the agency.
The managing director described NAN as the main news provider in the country, stressing that it must, therefore, not lag behind “but remain the main source of news to the wide range of subscribers’’.
“There was a plan for television sets in public places that would be showing news, documentary and a lot of information on flight movement, but it was abandoned.
“The plan was for NAN to be able to have its presence everywhere and releasing news to the public as it breaks. It will be marvellous; we will complete that project.
“We have equally launched a new website that offers free services not only to Nigerians but all over the world and is currently running.
“We are also re-designing the site we have currently for subscribers and it will be out soon.
“Similarly, new websites are being designed for photo news, video and audio to widen our services and meet the demand of our subscribers,’’ he said.
Onanuga also said that plans were on to improve the revenue base of the agency to generate more income to enable it to take care of staff welfare.
“We will soon commercialise our zonal offices to generate revenue for the agency by giving out our conference rooms for the public to hold conferences, training and other activities,’’ he said.
He urged the members of staff to cue into the agency’s “change agenda’’ and improve productivity in order to maintain NAN’s position as the leading news provider in the country.
“We have the human resources; let us join hands, work together to move the agency to greater heights.”
“There is no way I will say I understand the agency problems better and how well to address them without physically reaching out to ascertain the state of things.
“I assure you that I will do my best to address all the challenges confronting the agency,” he added.
Also speaking, the Editor-in-Chief of the agency, Malam Lawal Ado, said that the new management was determined to build a “new NAN’’ and urged all staff to support the drive for a better NAN.
Ado said that the agency would not achieve its objective without harmony among members of staff, and urged them to be committed to their jobs and improve on quality of reports.
“The new management wants to built a new NAN; it is the collective effort and responsibility of all members of staff and we must put our heads together and work harmoniously to achieve this objective,’’ he said.
Earlier, the Zonal Manager of the agency in Kaduna, Malam Maharazu Ahmed, congratulated Onanuga on his appointment as chief executive officer of the agency and pledged the commitment of the zone in building a new NAN.