Kumasi, Nov. 06, GNA – Economic and Financial Journalists have been advised to be more responsible in their reportage on financial issues for the public to appreciate the harm the COVID-19 pandemic had on economies.
Mr Suleiman Mustapha, the President of Journalists for Business Advocacy ( JBA) who gave the advice in Kumasi said the more journalists understood monetary policies, the more equipped they were to report accurately on monetary matters.
He was speaking during a two-day Financial Literacy Training organized by the JBA with funding from the Bank of Ghana on the theme: “Understanding Monetary Policies in A Post Pandemic Era”.
The objective was meant to equip media practitioners from the Upper West, Upper East, Northern and the Ashanti regions with the requisite knowledge in reporting on monetary policies in a post pandemic era.
Mr Mustapha said, Economic and Financial reporting was a complex but simple interesting field that journalists must develop zeal in that area to improve their knowledge in financial reporting.
He commended the Bank of Ghana for being one of the major financiers of JBA activities in the past five years and assured that JBA would continue to collaborate with the relevant partners to achieve the needed results.
Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari, first Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana in an address read on his behalf acknowledged the harm the pandemic had on global economy, which brought untold hardships to the people.
Mr Philip Abradu-Otoo, the Director of Research at the Bank of Ghana who read the address also commended the media for disseminating the activities of the Bank.
He said as an inflation targeting Central Bank, they believed that transparency was key in in promoting the credibility of the bank’s policies.
“This is the reason we take these engagements seriously in the hope that it sufficiently disseminate our policies to anchor inflation expectations and support the recovery process”.
Participants were taken through topics such as monetary policy practice in Ghana, understanding inflation as a policy tool, understanding balance of payments, and forex trading and foreign exchange markets.
Members of JBA are specialized group of journalists who received a two year training from the BUSAC Fund and had since 2009 been engaged in business advocacy in the country.
GNA