Kumasi, Sept 28, GNA - Mr Alhassan Andani, Managing Director of Stanbic Bank, Ghana, has affirmed the bank's resolve to sponsor journalists' capacity building workshops to bring them to the cutting edge of their profession.

He said, given the crucial role media practitioners played to either make or unmake society, they must be adequately empowered and resourced to impact positively on Africa. He said empowering the media would also make a positive impact on communities which had hitherto been portrayed to be devastated by war and living in abject poverty and squalor.

Mr Andani, who was addressing a cross-section of senior journalists at a press soiree in Kumasi at the weekend, said African media must be encouraged to tell their own story and bring to the lime light the rich natural resources and unique potentials that Africa was endowed with. "You must raise the bar by telling your own story in the positive way. If you don't do it nobody would do it for you," he said. Mr Mawuko Afadzinu, Marketing and Public Affairs Manager of the Bank, pledged to sponsor more journalists from the regions to an international business forum for Africa journalists held annually in South Africa.

The Bank, which has its headquarters in South Africa, has been sponsoring a number of journalists from Accra to the programme, however, for the first time this year, one broadcast journalist from Kumasi was selected to attend the forum. Nana Yaw Osei, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association, commended the Bank for being the only bank sponsoring journalists meetings in Kumasi and expressed the hope that such partnership would endure.