Business Journalists schooled on Ghana's financial sector

A two-day training for business journalists has ended in Accra on Friday with a call on corporate Ghana and journalists to partner towards restoring confidence in the Ghanaian financial system.

The training on the theme: “Understanding Ghana's Financial Market: The Role of the Journalists,” was organised by the Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA) with support from Ecobank Ghana Limited and the Bank of Ghana.

Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari, the First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana said training for financial journalists was significant as any misinformation had the tendency to jeopardise the financial sector.

He said training of the financial sector reporter was critical, adding that financial development and efficiency had strong relations with economic conditions and development.

The Deputy Governor said the role of the journalists in the monetary policy management had increasingly become important, adding that "since the launch of the current monetary policy framework in 2002, following the passage into law of the Bank of Ghana Act 2002 (Act 612), the Central Bank has placed a lot of emphasis on transparency and communication in the policy process".

He said journalists must begin to deepen their understanding in financial reporting because wrong reportage could be detrimental to the Ghanaian financial system.

Dr Opoku-Afari, said once financial information was placed in the right context, everything in the system fell in place, stressing that the Central Bank was committed to helping financial reporters to be more expressive in their reportage through partnering with expertise.

He urged banks and other financial institutions to join hands with Ecobank to support the training of journalists to secure the financial system through constant training and retraining.

Mr Morgan Asiedu, the Executive Director of Ecobank Ghana speaking at the opening said the bank had, for the past four years continuously partnered the JBA to train journalists towards supporting the media in its role of educating and informing the public.

He said the chosen theme was timely as it had become important for journalists to understand the happenings in the financial sector of the country.

He said, “When journalists understand the financial system, they are able to educate the public accurately to bring confidence in the sector”.

Mr Asiedu said Ecobank had developed strategies to increase banking culture among Ghanaians because with 30 banks in the country currently and 1,000 branches, only 30 per cent of Ghanaians had bank accounts.

Mr Kofi Yeboah, the General Secretary of the Ghana Journalists Associations encouraged journalists to continuously participate in training, which had the tendency to increase their professional competencies and improve on reportage.

The GJA General Secretary noted that the business beat of journalism particularly required constant training as it involved a lot of technicalities to make a comprehensive reportage.

Mr Yeboah urged the leadership of JBA to consider establishing an institute to constantly train journalists and individuals interested in building understanding in business reporting and also consider instituting an award scheme.

Mr Suleiman Mustapha, the President of JBA called on participants to put into practice whatever tools that there were equipped with during the training.

He called on the BoG and other financial institutions to continuously open their doors to support journalists to constantly train towards reporting on the financial system accurately and effectively.