The Association Of Africa’s Automotive Journalists (AAAJ) has been Unveiled.
The historic event, held on Thursday, April 24, 2025 in Kigali, Rwanda coincided with the launch of new Volkswagen models and test-drive by over 25 motoring journalists from various African countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Mauritius, Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Malawi.
Mike Ochonma, immediate past former vice chairman and later two-term Chairman of the Nigeria Auto Journalists Association (NAJA) from 2019-2025, the initiator and brain-box behind the new group stated that AAAJ is the outcome of a series of discussions.
Other executive members of the new AAAJ are Trevor Lamenya (Kenyan), Vice President, Fact Jeke (Zimbabwean) Secretary General, while veteran Moses Akaigwe of Nigeria and Richard Wiley of South Africa are to serve as Advisers, other positions will be announced in due course.
Mike Ochonma disclosed in Kigali that, the vision of AAAJ is to be the leading platform for automotive journalists in Africa, working tirelessly towards promoting excellence in automotive reporting and storytelling of the emerging African automotive industry.
He added that, the mission of AAAJ is to provide a forum for automotive journalists to share knowledge, best practices, and resources, enhancing the quality and credibility of automotive reporting in Africa.
Among the aims of AAAJ is to promote professional development and capacity building among automotive editors and journalists in Africa, to foster collaboration and networking among automotive editors, journalists, and industry stakeholders and to advocate for accurate, unbiased, and informative automotive reporting in Africa.
Its objectives is to organize regular training workshops, conferences, and seminars for the automotive journalists and editors among them, to create a platform for sharing news, features, and analysis on the African automotive industry, to develop and promote industry standards and guidelines for automotive reporting in Africa as well as recognize and reward excellence in automotive reporting through annual awards and recognition programs when necessary.
The President said that AAAJ will complement the effort of the
Association of African Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM) as a leading organization focused on industrializing Africa’s automotive sector.
In their separate congratulatory messages, Martina Biene, Chairperson and Managing Director of Volkswagen Group Africa and Victoria Backhaus-Jerling, CEO of AAAM congratulated the AAAJ.
The duo promised to offer every necessary support to the leadership and members of AAAJ and urged them to propagate and publicise the African auto industry narrative from well informed perspective.
