ABN (African Business News), home of the CNBC Africa and Forbes Africa, launched a new-look logo, while also launching a new business unit, the ABN Training Institute.
Through its specialised Corporate Media Training Course, the ABN Training Institute’s aim is to advance the communication skills of both corporate and business professionals across all levels of management, helping them to communicate with credibility and master the art of facing the media.

Corporate executives, spokespeople and captains of industry gathered at ABN’s head offices in Johannesburg, South Africa yesterday, 5 March 2012, and joined ABN Group managing director, Roberta Naidoo and head of training, Eleni Giokos for the launch of the ABN Training Institute.

Studios where the course will be presented were unveiled by Rakesh Wahi, founder and vice chairman of the ABN Group. Joining him for the ribbon-cutting was Gauteng Education MEC Barbara Creecy, who was also the keynote speaker for the launch function.

Giokos told the audience that the ABN Training Institute “offers an intense, practical, ‘Live’ TV experience in authentic TV studios with state-of-the-art equipment, presented by experienced journalists”.

“This highly interactive course offers candidates the opportunity to experience interview scenarios in a ‘live’ environment. This approach ensures delegates develop strong capabilities in all media interactions,” Giokos continued.

The ABN Training Institute offers corporate media training and this is something about which Wahi speaks proudly: “The equipment and the facilitators are of the highest standard. We aim to create value and empower clients by offering world-class media training services to address all media types.”

Naidoo told the ABN Training Institute launch function that she is delighted to welcome the new business unit into the ABN family.

New look

The ABN Media Group was established in October 2006, when founders Zafar Siddiqi and Wahi decided to fill the business news vacuum that previously existed in Africa. Their plan was to become Africa’s leading business news conglomerate

“Since the company worked quickly to fill the gap in the market, it became evident that we would have to create our own identity housing all of the brands, thus ABN360 follows our vision to be Africa’s leading aggregator and distributor of business content and aims to serve our stakeholders and clients while building a home for our staff,” says Wahi.

The group has since launched a new-look logo signifying ABN’s holistic, 360° approach to telling Africa’s business story – first.