Lagos, Nigeria, July 19, 2025: Polaris Bank Limited has organised a hybrid capacity-building seminar for over 500 journalists within and outside Nigeria. The event, themed “Empowering Journalists in the Digital Age: Storytelling, Tools & Transformation,” aimed to equip media professionals with relevant skills to thrive in today’s dynamic journalism landscape.
In his welcome address, Rasheed Bolarinwa, Head of Brand Management & Corporate Communications at Polaris Bank, highlighted the bank’s 12-year tradition of supporting media education. He noted that Polaris Bank has been at the forefront of digital capacity building for Nigerian journalists, stressing that enhancing journalistic skills ultimately benefits society.
Quoting a Chinese proverb, Bolarinwa said the bank believes in teaching people how to fish rather than simply giving them fish. This principle, he explained, underpins the bank’s annual approval and support for the seminar.
The training featured sessions by two renowned journalists: Mr. Taiwo Obe, Founder and Director of The Journalism Clinic, and Mr. Abayomi Adisa, senior journalist at BBC.
Obe reminded participants of journalism’s core purpose, quoting Tom Rosenstiel: “The purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and their governments.”
He discussed the rapid transformation in journalism driven by technological innovations such as mobile journalism (Mojo), which enables real-time news reporting. Obe cited Reuters’ 2007 introduction of the Mojo Toolkit—comprising a Nokia N95 phone, small tripod, wireless keyboard, solar charger, and external microphone—as a milestone that empowered journalists to report from anywhere efficiently.
Obe encouraged journalists to adopt free digital applications available on the Google Play Store to enhance storytelling with audio, video, and interactive graphics. He also highlighted the growing use of artificial intelligence in Nigerian newsrooms for copy editing, illustration, content strategy, and advertising, noting that AI offers opportunities for greater efficiency and creativity.
He further advised journalists to repurpose their story data into guidebooks, archives, issue analyses, position papers, recommendations, puzzles, Q&As, and even full-length books.
In his presentation on writing for social media, Mr. Abayomi Adisa urged journalists to create posts that make audiences stop, engage, and share. He outlined strategies for crafting effective social media content, emphasizing the need for posts to be personal, relevant, engaging, shareable, and concise to stand out in a noisy digital space.
Closing the seminar, Mrs. Bukola Oluyadi, Group Head of Customer Experience & Value Management at Polaris Bank, reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to supporting the media industry. She emphasized that no industry or organisation can flourish without media support.
Oluyadi described capacity building as a continuous process, stating, “People cannot improve with the status quo of yesterday; we need to keep building.” She assured that Polaris Bank remains dedicated to sustaining this annual initiative, recognising consistent investment in the media as key to long-term growth and sustainability.
