The First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari has attributed the strong banking sector to the financial sector reforms undertaken by the central bank.

The sector he said, has since remained liquid, profitable, and well-capitalized.

“The industry’s measure of solvency, the Capital Adequacy Ratio, has remained well above the revised regulatory 13 percent prudential limit. Asset quality has also improved albeit marginally,” he said at a Financial Literacy workshop for journalists in the Northern Zone of Ghana.

He told the journalists that “We cannot talk about all of these without assessing the strength of the Banking Sector: Banking sector is key for Growth and the stability of that sector should not be taken for Granted.

“The remarkable resilience exhibited by the banking sector over the two-year period could be attributed to the comprehensive financial sector reforms that took place before the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020.

“The sector has since remained liquid, profitable, and well-capitalised. The industry’s measure of solvency, the Capital Adequacy Ratio, has remained well above the revised regulatory 13 percent prudential limit. Asset quality has also improved albeit marginally.”

Regrading the role the financial and business journalist can play in sustaining the
economic recovery through confidence building he said, it is generally acknowledged that the behaviour of economic agents is influenced by the economic and financial environment,
which is largely shaped by the media.

“The media’s role in influencing the economic narrative is even more important during periods of heightened uncertainty when all kinds of news including fake news are rife on social media, even at times within mainstream media. The spread of such misinformation has the potential to jolt financial markets and create panic among the general public with dire implications for financial stability.

“Under such instances, business and financial journalists have additional responsibilities to help financial market participants and the general public to draw a clear distinction between facts and fiction and decide the newsworthiness of the information at hand for accurate reportage, a crucial ingredient for confidence building.

“Beyond dealing with personal biases, business and financial journalists need to develop analytical skills necessary to understand the complex relationships between financial and economic variables.

“It is my firm believe that workshops like this can help equip journalists like yourselves with the relevant knowledge of the financial sector and the nature of risks and incentives facing the sector.”