2008 Awards
The 2008 Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards were presented at a gala ceremony at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair, London on Thursday 3 July. The fifth anniversary of the Awards, which saw an unprecedented number of entries from across the globe, was celebrated by over 250 distinguished guests from the international media, government and business communities.
Presenting the Awards, Dr Nick Blazquez, Managing Director of Diageo Africa, shared some early findings of research commissioned by Diageo which will be published later in the year.
"Our research reveals that an overwhelming majority of respondents (90%) believe that media coverage about and from Africa has improved over the past five years, both in terms of quantity and quality. While everyone in this room will be happy to hear this, it is significant because of its impact on investment flows. 65% of the private equity funds that we spoke with told us that lenders will only provide money to investment funds if they have received positive news about the country and industry in which the fund will be investing.
So, there we have it. More and better business journalism is generating greater flows of investment to Africa, and more private sector development is leading to more business journalism. It’s a virtuous circle that eluded Africa for so long – but now it’s happening."