Africa 24 to launch in Arabic, English


Details

Rebecca Hawkes

| 06 January 2016




The French-language pan-African satellite news network Africa 24 is to expanding its operations to produce content in Arabic and English.



The broadcaster will produce an Arabic news channel in Morocco’s largest city Casablanca, while the English version will be made in Nigeria, Constant Nemale, founder and president of Africa 24, told the Moroccan publication Finance News Weekly.

The seven year-old satellite network, which employs people in Saint-Cloud, France as well as Dakar and Senegal, has already begun recruiting staff for its new venture in Casablanca. This, Nemale said, would become “an Arabic operating platform for all of North Africa and the Middle East”.

The existing French-language channel Africa 24 has been available via Arabsat across the Middle East and North Africa since 2013.

A time line for the projects has not been announced, but more information will be divulged before the end of 2016, he added.

Afrimedia, parent company of Africa 24, has received €40 million in investment since the channel’s launch, with shareholders including the Republic of Equatorial Guinea (10%) and Republic of Cameroon (15%), according to Nemale. By 2020, Afrimedia will seek further investment either through stock market trading or a financial partner.