Go Digital

Zafar Siddiqi, co-founder and chairman of CNBC Africa, on the channel’s 11-year journey and what the future holds for media in Africa.

- Ancillar Mangena

ELEVEN YEARS OF CNBC AFRICA…ON A PERSONAL LEVEL, WHAT HAS THE JOURNEY BEEN LIKE FOR YOU?

They have been 11 very good years. Looking back to when we first moved to South Africa to establish it, we had challenges from a regulatory point of view and a distribution point of view. But all that is now behind us. We are looking at business confidence picking up in South Africa and the rest of Africa. We are looking forward to the future.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF THE MEDIA INDUSTRY IN AFRICA?

There are challenges in emerging markets. I sincerely believe universities and educators [must] look at the curriculums across Africa. The whole environment is changing. We have digital coming in a big way globally. Print media is dying and how you give birth again to what was print on digital is quite a challenge even for television stations. There are challenges for media moving forward. The owners, from the management perspective, also have to consider what they would do with digital.