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Mrs Elsie Addo Awadzi, the second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), on Monday urged financial journalists to exhibit high professional standards in their work to promote confidence in the financial system.

Mrs Awadzi said it was prudent for financial journalists to show such standards to determine what, when and how to report economic and financial news to avoid undermining confidence in the financial system and the economy in general.

She was speaking at the opening of the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa’s Financial Journalism Training aimed at equipping financial journalists to serve the public interest as a critical part of continental development and progress.

She said the BoG continues to work closely with the media to help disseminate accurate and timely reports, while supporting capacity building both domestically and internationally.

Mrs Awadzi said the Bank recognised the critical need for increased professionalism in financial journalism.

She said the BoG was committed to the principles of transparency, accountability and good governance towards supporting the mandate of the Bank to ensure price and financial stability.

The Deputy Governor said the bank was particularly delighted that the programme was now available in Ghana, following its success in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya in the past three years.

She said: “We have very high expectations of you as leaders in a new era of world-class financial journalism in your respective countries.”

She added: “For the Ghanaian delegates among you, we trust that your participation in this programme will help to enrich the public discourse in economic and financial matters.”

The Bloomberg financial journalism training is an interactive, hands-on programme, firmly rooted in the African realities and aimed at equipping financial journalists to serve the public interest as a critical part of continental development and progress.

The programme is built around seven key themes, including Business and Finance; Policy and Financial Journalism.

All the modules will incorporate material about the ethical issues and social impacts of business and financial journalism.

The Training programme has 53 delegates (journalists and other professionals) from Ghana, Togo, Kenya, and Somalia, who have been accepted into the programme for the next two years.

The Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa’s Financial Journalism Training is a six-month programme, which will grant participants a free subscription to the Bloomberg Professional Service.

This subscription will give the participants free access to the world-class analytics, key industry data, market moving news and analysis that the Bloomberg Professional Service provides.