The Executive Director of Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG), Joseph Kobla Wemakor has been offered a place among the forty-eight (48) selected delegates accepted for the second intake of the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa (BMIA) Financial Journalism Program in Ghana.

Mr. Wemakor who also doubles as the Editor-In-Chief of the Ghananewsone.com in an interview averred that the opportunity is a step in the right direction towards enhancing his capacity to become a world class business and financial reporter he aspires to become in the near future.

“I believe this opportunity is a significant buildup on my previous ones; my selection among the top 18 African financial reporters who were schooled in Morocco last year by global renowned financial experts on business and financial reporting coupled with my earlier placement at the Multimedia Group’s; Joy Business News Desk as an intern towards achieving my dream of becoming the next world class business and financial in Ghana and beyond”.

The Financial Journalism Training program is a core component of the BMIA, a project of Bloomberg Philanthropist supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Ford Foundation which aims to contribute to the advancement of business and financial reporting in Africa.

Since the program was first launched in the Ghana on January 14, 2019, it has seen over 50 delegates accepted for the first intake of the training offered in partnership with the Strathmore University, University of Ghana Business School and Ghana Institute of Journalism.

For the next 6 months, the 48 selected delegates for the second intake who are practicing journalists (majority) as well as professionals from the government and non-government sector will spend 19 days in interactive sessions led by prominent faculty at local universities and will cover topics to strengthen their skills in an understanding of data analysis, capital markets, accounting and finance, public policy, economics and transforming media landscape. Financial journalism sessions will be taught by Bloomberg News reporters. Delegates will also receive a free, six-month subscription to the Bloomberg Terminal offering access to the global data, news and analysis.

Delivering his keynote address at the launch of the second intake of the program in Accra on September 2, Minister of Information-Ghana, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah lauded Bloomberg and its partners for offering the training opportunity which brought together practicing journalists to improve their capacities on how to effectively report on business and financial issues.

Recounting on how over the years, Ghanaian journalists have to invest a lot of time and resources into building their own capacities so to be in a good standing to effectively produce business and financial reports to better serve the audience, he reminded the participants about the huge resources being invested in the program and urged the participants accordingly to make good use of it to their own advantage.

“I want to encourage you that with the kind of resources that are being invested in this program, you will take it seriously as possible. It will demand sometime of you, but if you put in your very best over the next 6 months, we will begin to notice massive improvement in the industrialization of some of the issues and understanding of how it should be reported”.

In his opening remarks, Bureau Chief, Bloomberg LP, Ghana, Mr. Andre Janse Van Vuuren, hinted that his outfit is proud to partner Starvros Niarchos Foundation and the Ford Foundation in helping equip a global talent pool of journalists with the sort of specialist expertise that can propel them towards attaining a high level of professional excellence.

On his part, Prof. Justice Nyigmah Bawole, Dean of University of Ghana Business School commended the program managers in Ghana, Strathmore and South Africa for the successful execution of the BMIA financial journalism training program which has seen more than 500 delegates in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana completed since its launch in 2015.

Dr Modestus Fosu, Acting Deputy Rector of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) in his remark expressed delight over his outfit’s collaboration with the Bloomberg, Strathmore University and the University of Ghana Business School to advance business and financial reporting in Ghana.

While acknowledging government’s support and that of Bloomberg and its partners for the successful launch of the program in Ghana, he encourages the delegates to make good use of the opportunity to enhance their capacity in order to continue to be relevant to themselves and the society.

For his part, Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, Minister for Business Development charges the delegates to have deep knowledge and understanding on macro and micro economics, the GDP regulations, cost of borrowing and interest rates among others if they really want to become good financial journalists.

“If you really want to succeed in financial journalism, then you need to have passion, purse excellence and think outside the box at all times” he stressed.