By Maureen Okon

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) says it is expanding its operation in news exchange as the agency signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoS) with Italian news agency, Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA), in Abuja.

ANSA, the leading news agency in Italy, is a not-for-profit cooperative, founded in 1945 whose members and owners are 36 leading news organisations in the European country.

Its mission is the distribution of fair and objective news reports.

The Managing-Director of NAN, Mr Buki Ponle, signed the agreement for NAN while the Ambassador of Italy to Nigeria, Mr Stefano De Leo, signed on behalf of ANSA at the NAN headquarters.

The signing of the agreement was witnessed virtually by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ANSA, Mr Stefano De Alessandri, and the Nigerian Ambassador to Italy, Mr Mfawa Abam.

Also, at the signing ceremony, De Alessandri said that ANSA is a private news agency 100 per cent private, adding that they specifically are a cooperative of 26 publishers of newspapers, magazines and the most important national and regional newspapers.

He added that ANSA has more than 500 employees, two third of them are journalists, also with correspondents in more than 50 countries around the world.

“We do not publish only in Italian language, our websites publishes news in English, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese and German.

“We are at the same time a traditional news agency providing news wire, photo and videos services on a bit to bit, we are trusted and respected in Italy.

“Currently, we have agreements with more than 70 international partners all across Europe, South America, Asia and Africa,” he said.

According to him, the objective of this agreement is the exchange of our respective news wires with the possibility to use up to 50 news items per day of the partner agency for editorial production.

“I am very please to be here today to sign this agreement with NAN, which is the first country by population in Africa and one of the most important in the continent.

“Starting from 2022 we are renewing our collaboration agreements with international news agencies and we also open new partnership,” he said.

The CEO added that the agreement would enable both agencies to exchange videos, saying this partnership will allow us to improve our coverage of event in Nigeria.

“Thus, improve our information offer for the large Nigerian community living in Italy with more than 120 thousand citizens in 2022, and is one of the largest foreign population we have in Italy.

“Also, it will allow our colleague and partner NAN to offer more news on Italy in Nigeria, hopefully bringing our countries even closer and enlarging the cooperation between our two countries.

“Moreover, by way of this agreement we will be able to provide access to our news feed to our respective Embassies, meaning that we will give our news feed to the Nigerian Embassy in Rome and NAN will do the same with our embassy in Nigeria.

Responding, Ponle said that the agreement was a step in the right direction as it would unveil great possibilities of news exchange between both agencies.

The managing director described NAN as the country’s largest content provider and national purveyor of information, with 36 state offices and 26 district offices.

Ponle added that NAN has Nigeria as its focus and Africa as the centerpiece of its reportage.

“Today’s signing of news exchange agreement with ANSA marks another defining phase in our continued engagements with like minded institutions.

“It is my hope and belief that this landmark event will signal the beginning of a sustainable and mutually beneficial relationship.

“To leverage on its octopoidal reach, NAN also has news exchange partnerships with leading international wire agencies such as Rueters of United Kingdom, Deutsch Presse-Agentur of Germany, Xinhua of China and Sputnik of Russia.

“Other are Yonhap (South Korea), Asian News International (India), Anadolu (Turkey) and Bulgaria News Agency (Bulgaria).

“This is just a chip of the global experiences we are bringing into the partnership agreement with ANSA, aimed at fostering a new and positive order in global reportage,” he said.

Also speaking, Mbam said that the signing agreement demonstrates the importance of what Nigeria and Italy attached to their existing relations and commitment in strengthening it.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria welcome’s this development and the close collaboration which will enhance the quality of news delivery and lead to further initiatives that will add value to the development of both agencies in years to come.

“Therefore, I will like to assure the readiness of the Nigerian Embassy in Italy to provide all necessary support for the successful implementation of this agreement,” he said.

The Italian ambassador said that the agreement would strengthen the already existing relationship between Nigeria and Italy.

He added that the exchange of information and knowledge was key with Nigeria as the giant of Africa.

“Today is an important day because as the African saying goes thus, “that if you want to go far go alone.

“But if you want to go distance and far you have to go together, and having ANSA and NAN working together is the right step in the right direction,” he said.