Media agency explains expansion across Africa

PAN African media relations and communications firm, African Media Agency (AMA), has announced further geographic expansion across west and central Africa.

With an existing presence in Côte d’Ivoire and Uganda, AMA added Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Niger, Chad, Cameroun, CAR, Gabon, Congo and DRC to its African footprint.

For its multinational clients and US-based entities with African operations, AMA continues to serve them out of its New York offices.

This expansion comes as a direct response to the needs of AMA’s clients, both from the public and private sectors, for more focused and sustained engagement in francophone Africa, especially during the current pandemic.

Governments, multilateral institutions, development agencies, and corporations want more than ever to communicate with individuals and micro and small enterprises in these markets to help them survive the pandemic and thrive thereafter, with special focus on the vulnerable and underserved segments of society.

“From our inception in 2014 as a pan-African media agency dedicated to the development of the continent, we have projected the voice of Africa in the international community, served as the voice of our clients to their African constituents, and fostered pan-African integration,” said Eloïne Barry, CEO of AMA.

“We have achieved our objectives primarily by building capacity across the African media landscape and creating solid bridges between them and our clients. Our expanded presence in Francophone Africa will further bring our clients closer to the media base in these countries and help them shape their products and associated messaging to the markets needs and realities,” she added.

Over the decades, Francophone Africa has lagged behind its English-speaking counterparts owing to factors such as access to markets, unfavorable policies, low investor confidence, language barriers and bureaucracy.

Today, however, countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and the DRC offer new growth opportunities that are making Francophone Africa the next frontier.

For instance, following a decade-long crisis, the government of Côte d’Ivoire stepped up its game by investing in more infrastructure, expanding its ports and implementing sound financial strategies that have seen the country achieve an estimated growth of 8.31 percent since 2014.

But despite these advancements, not enough has been done to demystify the negative stereotypes about Francophone Africa. This is why AMA is stepping in by using the deep expertise of its team of local communications experts to shape and deploy a narrative that truly reflects the truly fascinating entrepreneurial spirit of the people of these countries, especially the young and the women.

AMA is the first female-owned and led agency to have a local presence across the continent, and has since grown to become an authoritative source of news and a partner to some of the world’s most reputable companies and organisations.

In 2018, Eloïne Barry was recognised as one of the Most influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) and in 2019 she received the Prize of Excellence awards by ASCOM, reflecting the work her award-winning team has put into changing the perception of the continent by promoting a home-grown narrative.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, developing economies across Africa were saddled with providing a response to the pandemic and finding new ways to adapt to the new normal.

Despite these challenges, AMA has remained at the forefront, providing a platform through which critical information alongside expert analysis of the continent’s economic landscape has been efficiently disseminated.

Since it was founded seven years ago, AMA has run over 900 campaigns, reaching thousands of African reporters and generated tens of thousands of coverage pieces for their clients. Some of which include the Africa CEO Forum, BBC World News, MasterCard Foundation and Barclays. The company’s recent expansion into more Francophone Africa countries will boost these efforts even further, at a most critical time along the development journey of these countries.