IFEJ launches 2019 Flamingo Awards

The Vice Chair of the Parliamentary Select Committee for Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs, Mr Abraham Dwuma Odoom, has urged financial and economic journalists to devote their stories more to issues of development.

He said it was important for them to focus on reporting on development that focused on issues such as public expenditure priorities for economic development.

“Don’t talk about people, don’t talk about events.

Simple and ordinary minds talk about events.

We want people who will bring on board ideas to propel development because the whole world was created out of ideas,” he said during the launch of the sixth Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ), Flamingo Awards, 2019, in Accra, for business and financial journalism.

Mr Odoom, who is also the Member of Parliament for Twifo Atti Morkwa Constituency in the Central Region, noted that Africa, and for that matter Ghana, had a lot of potential but was rather seen as problems which had not been harnessed as such.

“Embedded in what I see as challenges and not problems are huge potentials and job opportunities people do not realise.

“Power is not about purse but about service to the people. Helping your community to solve issues, recognising the potentials surrounding you and being productive with it,” he said.

Putting statistics into context

He said Africa had done a lot of research that had not been used while journalists sometimes used statistics as proof of a point.

“The fact is, statistics come from studies, and you have to assess the validity of each one.

What does it mean? Journalists must make use more of researches to come out with ideas to help the economy to grow,” he stated.

Increase in productivity

A former Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics at the University, Legon, Dr Kwadwo Tutu, said manufacturing held the key to sustainable development expected in Africa (Ghana), because it had the potential to accelerate growth and ultimately reduce poverty.

He recalled in that in the 1970s, the late president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, through deliberate policies made efforts (import substitution industrialisation) to transform Ghana from a raw material export country into more of manufacturing, realising that was the only way Africa could grow.

However, liberalisation around the 1980s reduced manufacturing share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 13 per cent to 6.5 per cent around 2012.

“Agric used to be 55 per cent but now about 18 per cent. Not that we are doing well because if you go to the development countries that is the trend.

Development means to transfer resources from agric and make agric more productive to manufacturing industry by transferring resources.

“So, now what we have is the service sector as the largest, manufacturing is 6.5 per cent, and so it a kwashiorkor development,” he stated.

He said without deliberate polices to change things, it would be only talk and said it behoved journalists to do proper solid research on the real sectors of economic growth that would put policy makers on their toes.

Flamingo awards

The theme for this year’s is, “Towards Agribusiness and Sustainable Development Goals.”

IFEJ instituted the annual awards to recognise business and financial journalists whose high quality reports are influencing policy for growth and development in Ghana.

Award categories are namely, best in finance, business, information, communication and technology, and natural resource.

The rest are best in tourism, development, local economy, agribusiness and the overall best business and financial journalist.

The President of IFEJ, Mr Rayborn Bulley, said the institute had over past five years been consistent in rewarding best practices among its own through the Flamingo Awards.

He said the award scheme was aimed at laying a strong foundation for financial journalists in the country to participate and win international awards such as the Diageo Awards for business and financial journalism and the CNN Awards among others.

“IFEJ believes better, accurate and in-depth reporting of the economy will generate more interest and a better informed public on Ghana as an investment destination.

“To be able to determine who wins any award is a very competent and independent jury.

We could not have come far on our own if corporate bodies and institutions had not been on our side.

We are grateful to all our partners,” he said.