Journalists urged to develop interest in financial reporting

Dr Bernard Otabil, General Manager of Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Wednesday challenged journalists to develop interest in economics and financial reporting.

He asked them to discard perceptions that the subject is “technical" and explore opportunities in the sector.

Dr Otabil was speaking at the closing ceremony of a two-day oil and gas/economics and financial reporting training for journalists at the GNA Press Centre in Accra.

The training, a second in a series organised by GNA with support from KOSMOS Energy, aimed at building the capacities of journalists in the oil and gas sector and economics and financial reporting.

Dr Otabil said though journalists across the globe are more into political reporting, they stand the chance of helping improve the economies of their countries if they pay attention to economic issues.

He said for instance, in Ghana, the refusal of the people to use coins is contributing to high inflation and the situation could be corrected should the media educate the public on the need to use the money.

Dr Otabil asked the participants to use their skills to impact society positively while GNA consider the option to organise similar trainings for journalists in the regions.

Mr Kofi Opoku, Deputy Finance Director, KOSMOS Energy who took participants through the overview of the oil and gas sector said Ghana netted $562.48 million oil revenue for the first half of 2014 and is expected to make about one billion dollars for the rest of the year.

He said the amount consist of $410.44 million from "lifting proceeds and $152.04 in taxes, royalties and surface rentals" among other interventions.

Mr Tally Ansah, a participant, commended GNA and KOSMOS Energy for the initiative and described the training as "timely".

The participants were taken through topics like CSR, Auditing and Reporting in the Oil and Gas Industry-a new Frontier for financial and business journalism, the dynamics of downstream oil marketing and financing.

The rest are the role of Oil Marketing Companies, Bulk Distribution Companies and National Petroleum Authority, Risk Assessment and Emergency Response System.