BoG builds capacity of journalists on economic and financial reporting

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has organised a financial literacy workshop for journalists in the Northern zone of Ghana to educate and empower them to be able to report on economic and financial issues accurately.

The two-day workshop held in Tamale over the weekend was attended by journalists drawn from the Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East and Upper West regions.

The Director of Research at the BoG, Dr Philip Abradu-Otoo, in his remarks at the opening ceremony on Friday, urged journalists to frequently equip themselves with the requisite knowledge needed in business, financial as well as economic reporting to help them report competently.

He encouraged them to always seek experts’ knowledge on issues relating to business, economics and finance before they report on them.

He noted that as a regulator, the Bank of Ghana was monitoring every indicator of the economy, and was doing everything possible to prevent further depreciation of the Ghana cedis.

“The media’s role in influencing the economic narrative is even more important during periods of heightened uncertainty when all kinds of news including fake news are rife on social media, even at times within mainstream media,” he said.

DrOtoo added “The spread of such misinformation has the potential to jolt financial markets and create panic among the general public with dire implications for financial stability.”

A Research Team Member of the Bank of Ghana and chairman of the event, DrZakariMumuni, in his submissions, said the two-day workshop was part of several efforts made by the BoG to equip journalists who were their major stakeholders with the necessary information and knowledge to be able to inform their readers, listeners and viewers well on economic and financial issues.

He also appealed to the participants to make good of the knowledge they have gained to educate the public on issues such as inflation, exchange rates, among others to improve their understanding of such matters.

The participants were taken through many topics including Monetary Policy practice in Ghana, Understanding Inflation dynamics in Ghana, Understanding balance of payments, Foreign Exchange Market, E-Cedi and Economic and Financial data.

BY TIMES REPORTER