News agency, bird, appoints new editor-in-chief

Image supplied: Ndu Okoh has been appointed as the editor-in-chief of bird

Okoh’s role will oversee all aspects of the agency’s editorial output and will see her work with more than 80 contributing journalists across Africa.

The award-winning Nigerian journalist has held positions in top regional and global news and media houses including Agence France Presse, The Nation Media Group and The Standard Group.

Okoh brings a wealth of experience from a varied background that spans broadcast journalism, corporate communications, research and business development.

"The opportunity to help set the editorial agenda and reframe how the world sees Africa is one I embrace with arms wide open,” she said.

“We will continue to find and tell the untold business, innovation, tech, human interest, arts and culture stories that abound on the continent. These are the stories that provide a balanced perspective of Africa by Africans and shift the focus away from the persistent frames of conflict, corruption, poverty and disease that have plagued news reporting on the continent. I know that the present and future is Africa, and bird is flying the vision high," Okoh continued.

Moky Makura, executive director of Africa No Filter, bird's main funder, said she was thrilled with Okoh’s appointment. “Ndu brings a deep understanding of the media ecosystem to the team and a passion for redefining African news which is critical to this role at bird.”

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Makura added,"Ndu will lead an editorial team that brings an important and different view of Africa to African newsrooms. Through bird, we're able to support newsrooms by providing a range of stories that better represent the continent and reflect its progress, at a time when newsroom budgets are under intense pressure. bird offers a different - and crucially important - picture of Africa to that provided by international news agencies, on whom many African newsrooms rely, not only for international but also for African content."

The specialist news agency, which provides free feature content, data-driven stories, pictures, graphics and news video, has over 70 subscriber clients across Africa and content contributors in 36 countries.

Founded and funded by Africa No Filter in 2021, the agency aims to change the narrative on and in Africa by providing content to news broadcasters, publishers and platforms.