Bank of Ghana (BoG) have trained journalists from the Northern zone comprising the Upper West and the Upper East on financial literacy and the situational knowledge about the economy. The media practitioners were enlightened on Monetary Policy Practice in Ghana, Understanding Inflation dynamics in Ghana, Understanding balance of payment, Foreign exchange market/Currency volatilities, causes and effects, and Introduction to summary of economic and financial data. Addressing the participants via Zoom, the first Deputy Governor of Bank of Ghana, Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari said the training was aimed to equipped Journalists with the needful knowledge for them to play key roles in the circulation of information to the public. “The media's role in influencing the economic narrative is even more important during periods of hightened uncertainty when all kinds of news including fake news are rife on social media, even at times within mainstream. The spread of such information has the potential to jolt financial markets and create panic in the public with dire implication for financial stability. Under such instances business and financial journalists have additional responsibility to financial market participants and the general public to understand the actuality”. According to him, the Bank is committed in improving the quality of financial and business journalism in the country. He advised the trainees to help the financial market, participants and the public to draw a clear distinction between facts and fiction and decide the newsworthiness of information at hand for accurate reportage. “Business and financial journalists need to develop analytical skills to understand the complex relationship between financial and economic variables, it's firm believe that this workshop this can equip journalists like yourself with relevant knowledge of the financial sector and the nature of risks and incentives financial sector”. He added. Chairman of the workshop and Director of research at Bank of Ghana, Dr. Philip Abradu-Otoo expressed optimistic that the trainees will report accurately on the economic following the impact of the workshop. He advised the Journalists to avoid running empty commentary on the economy, but rather replicate what they have acquired at the workshop. On behalf of the trainees, Chairman of the Northern Region chapter of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr. Majeed Abdul-Yakubu said the knowledge learnt at the workshop will be put into practice. He said members of the Association have been attending workshop of this nature, but the two days workshop was awesome. Mr. Abdul Majeed further thanked management of Bank of Ghana for organizing the workshop, stating that it will go a long way to improve the literacy rate in the media space. Source: Thenorthernweb.com