The CNBC Africa Studio at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange took seven years to come to fruition, the business channel molding itself after what CNBC in the United States did the past 25 years reporting from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and having a studio there.
CNBC Africa's South African shows like Open Exchange, Power Lunch and Closing Bell will now be done from the CNBC Africa studios at the JSE. Further new programming is also being planned.
"The new studio will be equipped with state of the art technology," says Jean Landsberg, CNBC Africa's head of operations and project head for CNBC Africa's studio launch at the JSE.
"While we have been reporting from the JSE and other major exchanges including the Nigerian Stock Exchange since our launch, today marks another milestone as we will be the first television network with the ability to uplink live directly from the JSE and integrate all our bureaus directly from the JSE," says Rakesh Wahi, the founder and vice chairperson of the ABN group.
"Our objective is to eventually unify reporting simultaneously from all exchanges in Africa," says Rakesh Wahi who plans to do the official ribbon-cutting of the CNBC Africa Studio inside the JSE at One Exchange Square in Sandton this Thursday.
CNBC Africa wants to do more live coverage from the JSE - Africa's largest stock exchange - with the new on-site studio. CNBC Africa will have the potential of doing up to 14 hours of business news coverage per day from the studio eventually.
"This project was part of our plan since 2007 and we were finally able to see it to fruition," says Roberta Naidoo, CNBC Africa's group managing director.
