PRINPAG Partners Bank Of Ghana To Train Journalists

The Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) has provided training for journalists in the Western and Central Regions of Ghana in monetary policy and financial stability reporting.

The programme was supported by Bank of Ghana (BoG).

The two-day training programme was organized from 4-5 December in Takoradi with over 40 journalists in attendance.

A Technical Team from the Bank of Ghana, led by Bernard Otabil, Head of the Communications Division, conducted the training.

Dr Kwasi Osei-Yeboah of the Financial Stability Department led the discussion on financial stability framework, exposing the journalists to the various tools that the bank use in the conduct of financial system risk within the framework of macro-prudential analysis.

Francis Loloh of the Research Department took participants through the monetary policy regimes in Ghana, and specifically provided training on the current inflation-targeting regime and the role of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in achieving the monetary targets, as agreed.

The universal banking and microfinance sectors also had a look-in, with Mr Eric Adjapong of the Banking Supervision Department leading discussion on the sectors.

Mr Adjapong took participants through the evolution of banking in Ghana, the structure and framework of the financial system generally, current supervision approach, with emphasis on key developments in the sector and the microfinance sector.

Bernard Otabil took participants through the fundamentals of financial and economic reporting, the dos and don'ts in financial journalism, elaborating on the various technical information shared in previous sessions, with role plays in a practical session that saw journalists creating stories from the Bank's recent MPC Press Statement released on November 27.

Overall, the sessions were extremely useful, with participants expressing satisfaction at the end of the two-day programme.

Commenting on the programme, Mr Otabil said: “Communication is as much about educating as it is about informing, therefore, with the important role that the media play in the monetary policy communication process, a knowledge update session like this goes a long way in improving the monetary policy cycle.”