Mr. Abradu-Otoo speaking at the workshop
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) says it acknowledges the role the media played during the recent banking sector cleanup and has thus called for a stronger collaboration between the Bank and the media.
The BoG posits that the media, especially financial journalists and the print media, have had the peculiar enthusiasm tasked to break down thorough economic and financial issues into the simple and comprehensible language to the ordinary Ghanaian, hence the need to strengthen the existing relationship between the two bodies.
This was contained in a message delivered on behalf of the Governor of the central bank, Dr Ernest Addison, by the Director of Research at the Central Bank, Mr. Philip Abradu-Otoo, during a three-day training and capacity building workshop for journalist in Ho last week.
Workshop
The workshop was organized by the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) with support from the central Bank for journalists from the Eastern, Volta and Oti Regions. It was held under the theme “the Role of the Media in Monetary Policy and Financial Stability Reporting”. The central bank expressed hope that the workshop will provide yet another opportunity to help deepen the tie between the two organizations through engagement to seek clarity on the process of monetary policy formation, financial sector reforms and other pertinent policy issues.
Economists of the central bank educated the participants on various topics including Monetary Policy Practice in Ghana, Banking and Financial Stability Issues; Recent development in the banking sector; introduction to the Bank of Ghana’s website and summary of financial and economic data, among others.
The Vice President of PRINPAG, David Tamakloe, indicated that the workshop was not only an opportunity for the media to update their knowledge about the mandates and operations of the Bank of Ghana but also a chance to widen their professional network to enhance their work.
Reforms
Mr. Abradu-Otoo indicated that financial stability constitutes another important objective of the central Bank and thus the period of 2017 to 2018 was eventful for the implementation of complementary reforms to safeguard depositor’s funds. He stated added that it was also meant to bring life to the financial sector and reposition the industry to support the country’s economic transformation.
He gave a trajectory of what the central bank did on the reforms starting from 2017 to 2019.
He expressed the belief of the bank that financial journalist would be more intrusive in their quest for knowledge urging them to be prepared to unearth irregularities within the financial space to sustain the process and ensure financial stability.
