From Business Day Live

Seasoned South African news and current affairs presenter Lerato Mbele will be the face of the BBC’s new African business show to be aired from next month.

The international broadcaster announced on Thursday that Ms Mbele would present Africa Business Report — a show that would be produced from the BBC’s production center in Johannesburg and use correspondents in 48 African countries.

The broadcaster said the program would report from across Africa on the latest business and technology news, showcasing the latest trends across the continent, through on-the-ground reports and high-profile interviews.

The new show comes as more and more local and international broadcasters are focusing on Africa, and the new show will face competition from already established programmes.

CNN already broadcasts its weekly show Inside Africa, and earlier this year, local radio host Redi Thlabi launched Al Jazeera’s Africa-focused weekly show called South2North.

Locally, Chris Maroleng hosts e-News Channel Africa’ s weekly show Africa 360, while the SABC recently launched a 24-hour news channel on the MultiChoice DStv platform, along with the Gupta- owned Africa News Network 7’s 24-hour news channel, which also has an Africa slant .

Media Monitoring Africa director William Bird welcomed the show but was cautious about its prospects.

“This is an interesting move, it is good thing. Africa has become central to world economics and we welcome this show and it is coming from an established brand,” Mr Bird said.

“On another level, it will pose a challenge to local business shows because BBC is an international and established brand,” he said.

Read more at Business Day Live.