Ecobank, JBA Sign Training Support Partnership

Ecobank Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), has reached a training support partnership with the Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA) to build the capacity of Ghanaian journalists in the country.

Under the partnership, the largest bank in Ghana in terms of assets will provide financial support to the JBA to train journalists on how to report on issues affecting growth and development of the financial sector.

The support, according to the parties would also enable the media to further intensify their advocacy for small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in the country. This came to light when Executives of the JBA paid courtesy call on the management of Ecobank Ghana in Accra over the weekend.

Welcoming the JBA’s executives, the Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana, Mr. Samuel Ashitey Adjei assured the JBA that the bank would vote an undisclosed amount of money for the training of Ghanaian journalists annually.

According to him, this amount would be put in the bank’s annual calendar to support the training of journalists across the length and breadth of the country. “We want to develop journalists who will report on the financial sector with confidence. In the developed world, there are journalists who hold PHDs but report on the financial sector which make them to write well on the sector.

That is what we want to do for the Ghanaian journalists”, Mr Adjei stated. He used the occasion to thank the journalists for their continuous support but advised them to eschew sensationalism in their reportage.

The Head, Communications and Public Relations, Mrs Patricia Sappor urged the media to use their power to effect social change for the betterment of the country. She noted that the media can make and unmake and urged them to keep up the good works.

On his part, the Chief Finance Officer of Ecobank Ghana, Mr Edward Nartey Botchway also commended the media for making impacts in the lives of the Ghanaian society. “If not for the vigilance of the Ghanaian media many things would have happened without the notice of the people. So, we want to partner you for the socio-economic development of the country”, he emphasised.

The Executive Director of the Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA), Mr Suleiman Mustapha on behalf of the association thanked the management and staff of the Ecobank for their support and urged other companies to emulate the bank’s shining example.

He also assured the Ecobank that the funds would be used for the intended purpose. Touching on the success stories of the JBA, Mr Mustapha noted that a research undertaken by JBA indicated that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) were either not aware or not concerned about the plight of SMEs, but were only interested in collecting levies from them.

“The advocacy by JBA has resulted in positive change in policy and programmes in some districts,” he stated. Instructively, the JBA was established out of GJA’s special two-year project dubbed “Using the Media to Strengthen Business Advocacy”.

The project, co-facilitated by KAB Consult, and sponsored by the Business Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund, begun in 2006, under the theme “Using the Media to Promote Small-Scale Business Concerns.”

Under the project, a core team of journalists undertook capacity development in business advocacy to create a multimedia platform to discuss the concerns of business, particularly SMEs. In Ghana the SMEs account for 90 per cent of enterprises of the economy, contributing about 60 per cent of employment and about six per cent to gross domestic product (GDP).

Source: Ghanaian Chronicle