Vice President Yemi Osibanjo has promised that the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) will soon have participants in the Senior Executive Course of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS).
He said members of the NGE, the umbrella body of print, broadcast and online media editors in Nigeria, would undertake the course with a view to contributing their quota to nation building and join its forums.
Academics, seasoned policy initiators and executors and other Nigerians with vast experience and wisdom, meet at NIPSS to reflect and exchange ideas on critical issues of developing the country.
Osinbajo said members of the Guild would be considered for screening into the course and successful ones would fill the discretionary slots for enrollment into the course, adding that his office would work out a plan for editors to participate in the course from the next batch of training.
He stated this when he hosted newly elected executive members of the Guild, led by its President, Mrs. Funke Egbemode.
He congratulated Egbemode and the Guild for its successful election, which demonstrated that it was a professional body of men and women of integrity and exemplary character.
Responding, Egbemode told the Vice president that the Guild was passionate about training and re-training of editors and would be seeking to partner with other agencies of government for capacity building of editors.
She also informed Osinbajo of the current harsh economic environment in which the media industry operates, saying while most other sectors are out of recession; the media industry was still in economic quagmire.
The NGE President suggested that the Federal Government should consider setting up a Media Industry Intervention Fund (MIIF), which media operators battling with high cost of importing consumables could resort to for cushioning the effects of the current harsh economic environment.