Accra, Aug 13, GNA - Financial and economic journalists partaking in the Ghana Journalists (GJA) "Improved Economic and Financial Reportage Project" on Friday ended their 10-day internship programme with selected financial institutions with the confidence of improving immensely on their reportage.

The GJA with the technical assistance of the KAB Governance Consult and sponsorship of the USAID, embarked on the training programme in June this year to sharpen their instincts and to improve upon their capacity in financial and economic reporting.

A team of GJA members, led by its General Secretary, Mr Bright Kwame Blewu, accompanied by the GNA went round the financial institutions to monitor the performance of the interns and to thank the institutions for their cooperation in ensuring that journalists were abreast with their operations.

The team toured a number of institutions, including the National Development Planning Commission, (NDPC), Merchant Bank Limited, the Ghana Commercial Bank, (GCB) the Ministry of Finance, the VAT Service, Customs, Exercise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Internal Revenue Service and the Audit Service, where the interns were attached.

At the NDPC, Mr Jerry Adotei, a Deputy Director, who briefed the team on the interns expressed satisfaction about the whole project and said such programmes should be encouraged at periodic intervals since it would help journalists to better understand the operations of financial institutions and well disseminate them to the public.

At the GCB Public Relations Office, Mrs Thyra Obuobi, said the project was good but expressed worry that some media houses could not allow their reporters to participate fully in the internship programme as some of them absented themselves on some occasions.

Giving his impressions, Mr Blewu said the programme had opened the channel of communication between the media and financial institutions, expressing the hope that it had helped demystify the barrier between the two entities.

He said the interns would reassemble in September to be taken through another interactive programme involving international and local experts in financial reportage.

On his part, Mr Kwasi Afriyie Badu, Chief Executive Officer of KAB Governance Consult, described the internship programme as historic, emphasizing that, it was the first time in the history of the GJA that practicing journalists were attached to strategic institutions to sharpen their skills.

He said that showed the GJA's determination to improving the reportage of its members to help them to come out with quality work.

He, however, said media organisations that refused to allow them to fully participate in the internship programme, after signing the undertaking would be denied such opportunity in future. He thanked the USAID for making available funds to upgrade the knowledge of the GJA members.