(Business in Cameroon) - Former celebrity presenter (1984-1991) of the Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV), Eric Chinje, has been appointed as Managing Director of African Media Initiative (AMI) for a period of three years, announced the board chairman of AMI, Trevor Ncube. The Cameroonian has replaced Senegalese Amadou M. Ba, co-founder of AllAfrica.com, who had come to the end of his contract. “The board and the media sector in Africa are eternally indebted to Amadou,” stated the new board chairman.

AMI is a pan-African governmental organisation based in Nairobi in Kenya which aims to strengthen private and independent media from Africa in order to promote democratic governance, social development and economic growth. It is this entity that holds the annual African Media Leaders Forum (AMLF) last held in November 2013 in Addis-Abeba.

In an open letter by the chairman of the board of AMI addressed to the organisation’s personnel and published on the company’s website, he announced the news. “I have the pleasure to inform you that the Board of African Media Initiative (AMI) has, after completing an international selection process, decided to appoint Eric Chinje, a Cameroonian national, as the new Managing Director of AMI […]. My colleagues and I are eager to work closely with him and you all to advance AMI’s foremost mandate which is the development of Africa’s media,” writes Trevor Ncube.

He specifies that the appointment will take effect as of July 1, 2014. Until that time, Dr. Roukaya Kasenally will assume these responsibilities in the interim. According to AMI’s board chairman, Eric Chinje’s mission is immense. “He will have to build on the successes of his predecessor, Mr Amadou M. Ba by strengthening the role of the AMI in the improvement of the quality of media in Africa; strengthening the initiative’s financial foundation, assuring a connection with regional and global media institutions to improve support interventions for media in Africa; strengthening management, leadership and professionalism in African sectors to adopt technology, cultivate new sources of income and improve sustainability.” 

Eric Chinje – a wealth of experience

Trevor Ncube is never short praise for the Cameroonian and has presented the Managing Director’s professional background to the staff of AMI. “Mr Chinje is currently the chief advisor of KRL International, the international communications and trade relations firm based in Washington DC, where he provided strategic high level communication for the governments of Liberia and South Sudan, among others.  He joined KRL after holding the position of Strategic Communications Director of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation in London.”

“Eric Chinje was chosen because of his wealth of experience,” the board chairman goes on to say. “A radio broadcasting veteran, Chinje was previously Director of Information and Programmes and Editor-in-Chief of Cameroonian television (1984-1991). He also worked as a CNN World Report correspondent and free-lance contributor with the BBC World Service, Voice of America and Deutsche Welle radio.”

Eric Chinje spent over 16 years at the World Bank in Washington DC where he was the bank’s spokesperson on African affairs and also held managerial positions such as director of the World Bank Institute’s (WBI) Global Media Développement programme. He was also director of Africa Region Strategic Communications (AFRSC), a World Bank body where he supervised a team of over 80 communication professionals in sub-Saharan Africa. Between 2004 and 2008, Eric Chinje was Director of External Affairs and Communication at the African Development Bank (Tunis). 

The AMI board chairman’s letter also indicates that, due to his passion for issues related to governance, one of the major accomplishments of Mr. Chinje was the launch of the Independent Media for Accountability, Governance and Empowerment (IMAGE) which conducted a series of workshops and seminars on strengthening the capacities of investigative journalism, reporting on governance and the budget, agriculture and other sectors. Two thousand journalists trained in Africa and Asia participated in the activity.

B-O.D.