I can exclusively break the news that business journalist Eleni Giokos has dumped CNBC Africa (DStv 410) and joined the eNews Channel (DStv 403) as business reporter and anchor, making her the next high-level defection from the business news channel just this year.
Eleni Giokos is appearing on the eNews Channel's primetime weekday news show News Night and already weighed in with her expert analysis as financial commentator on the Barclays scandal in one of the Africa news programmes on the channel.
Responding to a media enquiry, the eNews Channel confirms that "Eleni Giokos joined the eNews Channel at the beginning of July after a successful stint at CNBC Africa".
Patrick Conroy, the group head of eNews at e.tv says Eleni Giokos will anchor news and business for the next few months on the eNews Channel before being allocated a permanent slot in the eNews Channel's programming line-up.
It's unclear how Eleni Giokos - a fast-rising star in financial reporting - now having jumped to the eNews Channel will affect Top Trader, the local reality show CNBC Africa planned and announced last year with Eleni Giokos as the presenter. Top Trader is supposed to start in August on CNBC Africa. Filming started in April.
Eleni Giokos is the latest high profile person who've jettisoned CNBC Africa for greener pastures, following Lerato Mbele out the door in February who now works for the BBC, and Gary Alfonso, the group managing director who left in April. CNBC Africa didn't respond with answers to urgent media enquiries made this morning.
CNBC Africa has been criticised for irrelevant and out-of-touch news coverage. In May for instance CNBC Africa showed a pre-recorded programme about the hospitality industry (co-incidentally anchored by Eleni Giokos) while all other business news platforms reacted and responded to the JP Morgan Chase scandal affecting world markets.
