As part of efforts to stop the menace of Illicit Financial Flows in Africa and particularly Ghana, a capacity building workshop has been organised for 12 selected journalists across the country.
The five-day workshop which was under the auspices of the Governance for Inclusive Development Programme [GIZ] and co-funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office [FCDO] was held at Akosombo.
Some of the topics treated included investigative reporting on IFFs, Ghana IFFs institutional mapping, computer-assisted reporting, digital security, Right to Information (RTI), media ethics and many others.
The training workshop was to better prepare journalists to develop interest and be equipped with the knowledge on IFFs reporting both local and international.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Economic Development in Africa Report 2020 estimated Africa loses $88.6 billion annually to IFFs.
Africa is estimated to be losing more than $50 billion each year. Ghana in particular loses $340 million annually to Illicit Financial Flows every year.
This scary statistics generated a lot of interest among the participants drawn from the Multimedia Group, Fourth Estate, GBC, GNA, Ghanaweb, Class Media Group and Radio for Development (RADFORD FM), a community radio station at Tumu in the Upper West region.
Due to how much Ghana is losing, urgent steps on the part of journalists were needed to expose the perpetrators of the rot.
Workshop facilitators, an economic and IFFs consultant, Bishop Akolgo and renowned international journalist, Patrick Batarilo were unanimous in their call on journalists to play key roles in nibbing IFFs in the bud.
They shared their experiences and took participants through key concepts and definitions of IFFs, money laundering mechanisms and how to source information when doing IFF investigative story.
They also charged journalists to do their work in IFFs without fear or favour to fulfill their mandates as Fourth Estate of the Realm.
At the end of the five-day intensive workshop, the 12 journalists were resolved to expose those involved in Illicit Financial Flows in Ghana and abroad.