- Central Bank Expands Support for Economic Reporting with Fellowships and Global Exposure – Governor
Bank of Ghana Governor Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama has described clear communication as a core responsibility of central banks, arguing that monetary policy works best when the public understands the decisions shaping inflation, exchange rates and financial conditions.
Speaking at the 30th Ghana Journalists Association Media Awards in Accra on Saturday, November 7, Dr Asiama said journalists play a key role in translating complex economic issues into information citizens can use.
The comments place renewed emphasis on the relationship between monetary policy, public trust and the quality of economic reporting.
“Transparency, credibility, and accountability require open and effective engagement with all stakeholders, including the media,” he said.
The Governor said monetary policy decisions, inflation trends, financial sector reforms, exchange rate movements and digital financial innovations can be difficult subjects for the public to interpret.
Accurate and balanced reporting, he argued, helps make those issues more accessible and supports informed public discussion.
The emphasis reflects an important challenge for central banks: policy decisions do not operate only through interest rates and financial markets.
They also depend on how households, businesses and investors understand the economic outlook and respond to official decisions. When policy announcements are misunderstood or stripped of context, public confidence can be harder to sustain.
Dr Asiama’s speech did not set out new monetary policy measures. Instead, it focused on the role of journalism in the economic policy environment and on the Bank of Ghana’s support for reporting that improves public understanding of financial and economic developments.
“Professional journalism serves as society’s compass,” he said, adding that it can help citizens distinguish “facts from falsehood, evidence from speculation, and informed analysis from sensationalism”.
His remarks came as the awards were held under the theme, “Celebrating Excellence, Advancing Media Freedom and Combating Hate Speech in the Digital Age.”
The Governor said digital platforms had broadened opportunities for public participation and information sharing, while also creating challenges involving misinformation, disinformation, online abuse, misleading data and hate speech.
For economic journalism, those pressures can carry particular weight. Claims about inflation, the currency or financial institutions can influence how people interpret economic conditions.
The Governor’s message was that scrutiny and media freedom remain essential, but that accuracy and responsible engagement are also necessary when reporting issues that affect livelihoods.
Dr Asiama acknowledged that Ghanaian journalists had become more sophisticated in their coverage of business, finance and economic policy. He cited investigative reporting, analytical features, broadcast discussions and digital storytelling as forms that have expanded public understanding.
The Bank’s response has included the Governor’s Economic and Financial Story of the Year Award, which the Governor said was established to encourage high-quality reporting, deepen financial literacy and contribute constructively to national policy debate.
The award package includes sponsorship for the recipient to attend either the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring Meetings or Annual Meetings, a laptop computer and a one-year internet data subscription.
The Bank also intends to provide opportunities for professional fellowships with institutions including the Thomson Foundation, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and accredited local journalism training centres.
The package is designed to extend beyond recognition at an awards ceremony. International meetings can give journalists access to global policymakers, researchers and financial leaders; fellowships and training can support specialist reporting skills.
The Bank also said scholarship opportunities in media, communications and journalism-related fields, as well as professional exchanges with organisations including Bloomberg and Reuters, would be available.
“Our objective is simple: to invest in the development of journalists who can continue to elevate the quality of economic and financial reporting in Ghana,” Dr Asiama said.
The initiative also raises a wider question about what quality economic reporting requires. Greater technical capacity can help journalists explain policy choices and their consequences, but strong reporting also depends on access to information, independence and the ability to question institutions.
The Governor’s remarks recognised the media’s accountability role, while presenting the Bank’s award and development opportunities as ways to strengthen reporting.
That balance matters for the public. Central banks communicate decisions that can affect borrowing costs, savings, prices and business expectations.
Journalists can help explain those decisions, but their contribution is most useful when reporting is clear about the evidence, uncertainty and trade-offs behind policy statements.
Specialist training may help build that capacity, while editorial independence remains important to maintaining public confidence.
The Governor thanked the GJA for sustaining the awards and congratulated nominees and recipients, saying their work “informs, educates, inspires, and holds institutions accountable.”
The acknowledgement frames journalism not only as a channel for public information but also as part of the accountability system around public institutions.
The Bank’s approach suggests that it sees economic reporting as a part of its broader engagement with the public.
That does not make journalists responsible for promoting central bank policy. Rather, the Governor’s argument is that people need accurate explanations of policy and economic conditions to understand decisions and assess their effects.
As digital platforms accelerate the spread of information, that task becomes more demanding. The challenge is to report quickly without sacrificing context, to explain complex developments without oversimplifying them, and to preserve public trust while scrutinising official claims. Dr Asiama’s remarks place those responsibilities at the centre of the relationship between the Bank and the media.
The awards ceremony marked three decades of recognising journalistic work. For the Bank of Ghana, the next step is to turn its support for economic reporting into sustained opportunities for professional development, while for the media the enduring test will be to make economic decisions understandable, evidence-based and open to public scrutiny.
