The Minister of Finance, Mohammed Amin Adam has announced the establishment of an educational endowment fund for journalists in the Northern Region.

Mr Amin, popularly known as Anta who is also the Member of Parliament for Karaga in the Northern Region donated GH¢500,000 as seed capital for the educational fund christened "Anta- GJA Scholarship For Journalists in the Northern Region."

It is expected to provide scholarship packages to journalists in the region to further their education.

The finance minister announced this at the 2024 Northern Regional GJA Awards held in Tamale on Saturday.

Mr. Amin said the establishment of the fund was his way of contributing to the media development in the area.

The finance minister who was one time the Mayor of Tamale during John Agyekum Kufour’s regime said “This is very important to me because as I relate to you since I was the Mayor [of Tamale], I have seen journalists who have come to me to say ‘I want to further my education and I want support’, I have seen that many, many times. This is what has inspired me to establish this scholarship to support you.”

He believes that “Gh¢500,000 can support five journalists every year for the next five years if you invest this money well," he said.

Speaking on the challenges facing the Ghanaian economy, the finance minister said despite the challenges, the government was still investing heavily in social intervention programs.

He said the government continues to invest in free education, school feeding program, and the National Health Insurance Scheme.

“Our government continues to invest heavily in social interventions that will bring relief to our people. We all know what we’ve been doing with the Free SHS program. To date, since its inception, 5.7 million Ghanaian Youth have gone through the program and the government has invested close to 12 billion Ghana cedis in this program.

|Similarly, the School Feeding Program is a big success and many countries are
emulating it. Starting from about a few hundred pupils to 1.6 million pupils in 2016. To date, it is covering 4 million pupils across the country. Similarly, the NHIS is improving. In 2016 we spent almost a billion Ghana cedis on the NHIS, however, we’ve increased the investment in this very important social intervention. Last year we did Gh¢3billion and this year we’re spending ¢6.5 billion cedis in the NHIS,” he said.

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin in a speech delivered by Kate Addo,
the Coordinating Director in Charge of Parliamentary Broadcasting, Media Relations, and Public Engagements Departments of Parliament urged journalists to uphold the highest ethical and professional standards in their reportage ahead of the December general elections.

He said journalists had a key role in ensuring peace before, during, and after the elections and therefore the need to be professional in the discharge of their duties.

The Speaker of Parliament also urged journalists to work to ensure that they did not become the sources of misinformation and disinformation during the electioneering season as such fake news could plunge the country into chaos.

He donated a number of laptops to the GJA to be distributed among deserving
journalists in the region.

Media General’s Christopher Amoako was adjudged the Northern Regional Journalist of the Year.