Ghana: Making Finance Work for Africa

From May 5 - 7 more than a thousand delegates from the worlds of politics, business and other organizations gathered for the World Economic Forum on Africa in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, to discuss more efficient economic and financial strategies for the continent. Achieving better economic growth for Africa and improving public awareness and knowledge about the financial sector are also among the goals of the regional partnership "Making Finance Work for Africa".

Founding members include the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. DW Akademie supports the "Making Finance Work for Africa" project by offering workshops to radio and television journalists on how to address this complex field.

"Ninety percent of the people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have a bank account and therefore don't know how banks work or how to take out a loan," says DW Akademie project manager Kateri Jochum. "Our workshops are aimed at showing journalists that they can improve people's understanding of financial issues by being aware of what interests them and reporting in a simple and comprehensible manner."

Keeping in line with this, a "Making Finance Work for Africa"-workshop in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, focused on finding business topics relevant to ordinary people. Kateri Jochum and her team of instructors began the workshop by sending the participants into town for just one hour to find interesting financial topics from everyday life. People they asked wanted to know whether it was worth taking out funeral insurance, how they could best invest money with a bank or how they could create jobs by recycling trash - all topics which affect and interest audiences.

Not knowing the benefits, costs and risks of loans and other financial products remains an obstacle to entrepreneurial success for large parts of the African population. Education is a key factor and the media can help in transferring important knowledge. DW Akademie's "Making Finance Work for Africa"-workshops are also aimed at developing a network of financial journalists who can pass on and exchange their expertise beyond national borders.

"Our motto is 'Business is not boring' - it can even be fun and easy to understand," says project manager Kateri Jochum. "And this is confirmed in the workshops when you see the new enthusiasm the financial journalists discover for their subject." Having held workshops in English in Ghana and Zambia, DW Akademie is now extending workshops on financial reporting to the French and Portuguese-speaking countries of sub-Saharan Africa.