The leadership of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) says its financial status is “fertile’’ in spite of increasing operational expenses.
NGE President, Mrs Funke Egbemode, said this in her address of welcome at the guild’s 2019 biennial convention in Lagos, on Saturday.
The theme of the convention is “Media Convergence as Strategy for Survival.’’
Egbemode said the leadership of the guild in the last two years, had been productive and impacted positively on members.
She said while the leadership had continued to improve on facilities at the Editors’ House, work had commenced at the recently acquired Abuja property.
According to her, though it will cost millions of Naira to complete the projects, she said that the guild had paid the first installment of the N33 million charged by the FCT for issuance of Certificate of Occupancy on the property.
Egbemode disclosed that her executive had grown the N50 million inherited from her predecessor Femi Adesina in 2017, to N59.4m million as at December, 2018.
“All that this exco has done in Lagos and Abuja conferences, conventions, trainings, tours and standing committee meetings, we have done with what we generated,” she said.
Highlighting some of her achievements, she said selected editors from the three zones and different platforms attended the Lisbon, Portugal summit in 2018, embarked on tours to China in 2017 and 2018 and the West African Business School.
“This is also the first NGE exco to broker a relationship with the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, where we have secured three slots for three editors per year, but we have to pay,” she said.
Egbemode, who took responsibility for all noticed lapses particularly, communication, commended the solid foundation laid by former presidents of the guild, which she said formed the basis of the modest achievements of her executive.
TBI Africa said the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that no fewer than 383 delegates and fellows of the guild are attending the convention.
