Practicing Nigerian journalists have been told to maximise their talents and professionalism to generate income.
Adava Oyiza Ometere, senior administrative officer and resource person from Small ana Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), stated this at a one-day seminar organised by correspondents chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Kwara State chapter, as part of its 2024 press week activities.
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The expert emphasised that journalists needed to widen their horizon, take a notch, be creative, and leverage on entrepreneurship.
She mentioned areas where journalists can venture into personal business to include consultation and workshop, freelance writing, social media strategy, utilising advert revenue, public speaking, networking, podcast among other opportunities that are relevant to their profession.
“As journalists, one of the ways you can own your business is to make your online presence very strong. It is very important you maximise online platform. You have to be creative with what we do, create a nich and make difference.”
Speaking on programmes SMEDAN runs, she said people get access to finance, capacity building, business information and advocacy.
While encouraging participants to lay hands on other areas such as agriculture, petty trading and so on, Ometere added: “fishery, producing household daily needs, or you fill the gap in areas you know there are problems to solve.”
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On current economic downturn, she advised nano, micro, small and medium scale business owners to remain resilient and be focused, adding that, “they should not be discouraged, nor pull down their businesses because of the current challenges in the country. Let them endure, Nigeria is going to be better.”
