The Journalists were drawn from South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, and among others.
The Sanlam Summer School for Financial Journalists 2014 is under the theme “Enterprise Development and Economic Growth.” The one- week intensive training is been organized by the Sanlam Group form South Africa.
In his address to officially open the school, Mr. Ainsley Moos, the Head of Communication at Sanlam Group said for the past 10 years the group has been supporting the development and capacity of journalists on the continent.
“We have been doing this in three areas. These are the Summer School, support to the Financial Journalist of the Year in South Africa and as well as building the capacity of the South African local media,” he added.
According to him it is also the company’s objective to expose their young workers to communication skills.
He urged the 2014 summer students to be ready and learn every lesson that will take place during the school.
A consultant to Sanlam Group, Mr. Alex Hogg advised the student to be open minded, read a lot around their line of duty and also listen to what goes on within the financial sector.
“As a financial journalist you must have integrity. You must have professional integrity, financial integrity, and personal integrity when reporting on financial issues,” said Mr. Hogg.
The annual Sanlam Summer School for Financial Journalists was Sanlam’s direct response to the King II report on Corporate Governance in 2003.
The report called on the private sector to assist in the training of financial journalists to develop investigative journalism for the improvement of corporate governance in South Africa.
Now in its 12th year, the Summer School has some 340 alumni, which includes award-winning journalists as well as those who have advanced to senior positions in the newsrooms.
