The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), with support from the Thomson Reuters Foundation, has equipped a group of promising journalists on how to identify and report on illicit financial flows in Ghana and across Africa.

The journalists were selected from leading media houses in the country, including representatives from regional outlets.

Held in the Greater Accra region for a week-long training, the programme featured Cris Chinaka, a former Reuters staff member from Zimbabwe, who provided intensive facilitation on the issue of illicit financial flows.

The ten journalists received training on money laundering and corruption, and how these practices undermine national development.

They were also educated on the legal frameworks surrounding these issues, as well as topics such as public finance management, financial transparency, accountability, trends in domestic revenue mobilisation, investigative journalism, tax avoidance, and tax havens.

Additionally, the journalists were trained on how to pitch stories related to illicit financial flows and how to effectively work on such stories.

This marks the second cohort of training sessions in Ghana focused on reporting illicit financial flows.

MFWA is dedicated to tackling corruption in the Sub-Saharan region. Over the years, the organisation has organised similar training workshops, awarded grants, run campaigns, and carried out various activities aimed at reducing corruption within systems.

The training has been organised in Kenya and Tanzania, with a total of 30 journalists trained across the three countries.

Photo credit: MFWA