President of PRINPAG, Edwin Arthur,
The president of Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG), Edwin Arthur, has called for the strengthening of the communications department of the Bank of Ghana to enhance a more effective dissemination of information on financial issues.
He says this is important to enable the public get the right information to plan their lives and their activities accordingly.
Mr Arthur made the call at a 2-day workshop on the role of the media in monetary policy stability reporting organised by PRINPAG, in collaboration with the Bank of Ghana, at Dodowa.
He noted that, in recent times, there have been diverse and controversial discussions about the financial sector that have placed the citizenry in a state of confusion.
He attributed the confusion to the inability of the central bank to reduce its messages in simple form to enable journalists convey the truth regarding its operations and activities as well as impact on ordinary citizens.
“When that happens”, the PRINPAG president noted, “it paves way for partisan financial analysts and others to pollute the airwaves daily on happenings in the financial sector.”
“Still, as at today, due to lack of proper communication, majority of Ghanaians know next to nothing about the activities of a critical and an important committee such as the Monetary Policy Committee,” he said.
Info dissemination
Mr Authur believes it is imperative for BoG’s communications department to champion and also set the agenda on these discussions.
He therefore recommended that, in doing so, some of the information to Ghanaians should be in the local dialects, for the benefit of those who do not understand the English language.
“This, the Bank can do effectively, if it should liaise with the Information Services Department. This is important because what we hear on the current issues on our financial front, when we interact with those in the hinterland, will amaze you.
“It is important and critical that the bank devises the right information dissemination strategy and put in place the machinery to ensure that everybody resident in the country is well informed on the happenings in our financial sector,” he said.
Quality stories
In his contribution, the president of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA), Roland Affail Monney, noted: “if media practitioners, most especially financial and economic journalists, do more quality stories and compelling programmes, the economy will respond positively.”
“We therefore expect an endless stream of authoritative, in-depth, analytical stories and commentaries on economic and financial issues instead of simply reproducing figures churned out by technocrats or merely amplifying submissions emanating from politicians,” he added.
Mr Affail Monney also urged journalists to assert their professional competence and independence to help counter the misleading narratives, outright lies and blatant spin which are rampant in the media space.
The 2-workshop was under the theme “The Role of the Media in Monetary Policy and Financial Stability Reporting.”
It was intended to equip participants with the requisite knowledge on issues relating to the operations of the central bank and other financial issues, to enable them report on them from informed positions.
