BoG Schools Journalists on Monetary Policy and Financial Stability Reporting

The Private Newspaper Publishers Assocition of Ghana (PRINPAG) with support from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) is holding a two-day training and capacity building for journalist from the Eastern, Volta and Oti Regions.

Executive Secretary of PRINPAG, Kenteman Nii Laryea Sowah said the objective is to enhance the capacity of media personnel in the country on their role in monetary policy and financial stability reporting. The event is currently ongoing at Ho – the capital of the Volta Region.

Economist of the central bank have been educating 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.

Delivering the opening remarks on behalf of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana Dr Ernest Addison, Mr. Philip Abradu-Otoo, the Director of Research at the Central Bank acknowledged the role the media played during the recent banking reforms which saw the revocation of the licences of some Banks and microfinance institutions, saving and loans companies.

“I will express our profound gratitude to the media expecially the financial journalist and the print media who have had the peculiar enthusiasm tasked to break down thorough economic and financial issues into the simple and comprehensible language to the ordinary Ghanaian, hoping this workshop will provide yet another opportunity to help deepen this process as we engage the staff of the Bank of Ghana to seek clarity on the process of monetary policy formation, financial sector reforms and other petinent policy issues,” he stated.

He added that “financial stability constitute another important objective of the Bank of Ghana and the period of 2017 to 2018 was eventful for the implementation of complementary reforms by the central Bank to safeguard depositor’s funds living financial stability and reposition the industry to support the country’s economic transformation.

“In May, the central Bank embanked on an exercise to also sensitize the microfinance and savings and loans sector, again the press was instrumental in the successful process as the medium through which we informed the public about these reforms and policy actions, we acknowledge your positive contributions in this process as well,” Mr. Abradu-Otoo said.

He said the Bank strongly believes that financial journalist would be more intrusive in their quest for knowledge and must be prepared to unearth inregulalities within the financial space to sustain the process and ensure financial stability.

“It is clear at this stage that there is a strong link between the role of financial journalists and sustance of financial stability, revealing that the years ahead are challenging”

He entreated journalists to master courage and be deligent in the discharge of their duties.

He announced some micro credentials and market conduct regulatory measures adopted by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank at their just ended November MPC Meeting seeking to boost credit to the small and medium scale enterprises to foster more competition in the banking sector and in the process help lower lending rate.

The measures as he revealed include, setting aside 2% of the bank primary reserve to support targeted lending SMEs as part of the enterprise credit scheme that was announced in the 2020 budget, exploring the possibility of setting a minimum loan to deposit ratio to ensure that more deposits mobilised at the bank are channelled to viable private sector projects, and working closely with banks to ensure that banks do not pass on their operational inefficiency and overhead cost to their clients by alling compensation with the overall bank performance.

The Bank of Ghana will also scrutinize compensation policies for Chief Executive Officers and key management personnel as well as board of directors of the universal Banks and finally the banks will be required to develop the progress a clear framework on the risk premium build up that impart on individuals borrowing credit from the Banks.

Source: William Dei-Gyau