At least 48 Ghanaian journalists have been trained in cutting edge financial and data journalism, thanks to the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa (BMIA). 

The philanthropic arm of Bloomberg extended the training to Ghana after huge successes of similar programmes in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria.

Reporting on figures, the economy and converting raw data into news can be cumbersome; making that information relevant to everyday people can be even more nerve-wracking. That is what the 19-day training spread over six months is intended to do; breaking down to relevance, the hard financial figures and turning data into compelling content for audiences.  

The programme which was coordinated by the University of Ghana Business School and the Ghana Institute of Journalism in collaboration with the Strathmore Business School in Kenya, saw participants through eight modules including media landscape, financial markets, stocks and bonds as well as public policy and how all these relate to the quality of lives of a country’s citizens, from January to June 2019. 

Country program manager Dr Agyapomaa Dako said Bloomberg and the entire faculty are passionate about developing capacities of media persons who are able to impact society positively.

Participants who have given glowing testimonials of the training programme say their media organizations begun reaping the benefits of the training midway through the training; reporting on massive improvements to their appreciation of stories and financial reviews of companies. 

Aside from gaining access to new analysts and resource persons, participants were also offered free access to the rich database collected across the world and available on the Bloomberg terminal which normally attracts yearly fees amounting to thousands of dollars.  

The program which runs concurrently in Ghana and Zambia with a total number of 91 journalists enrolled is set to be extended to Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and Tanzania for the next intake while Ghana gears up to enrol its next intake. 

The expansion of the program to three other countries in Africa falls in line with the objective of Michael Bloomberg to raise analytical, inquisitive and knowledgeable financial journalists. 

Since its launch in 2014, the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa (BMIA) has granted more than 1,000 stakeholders in Africa the opportunity to appreciate what happens in the world of business and to ask the right questions.