Make your reportage on the Stock Exchange relevant-Deloitte back

posted on Wed, 01 Aug at 09:44

Journalists were on Tuesday asked to employ simple self-explanatory terms in their reportage of activities on the Ghana Stock Exchange to enable their stories to be relevant to stakeholders.



They have also been admonished to report about the market capitalization of the companies listed on the stock exchange to enable the public to recognize and track the daily progress or otherwise of the companies.

Mr Kwabena Situ, a Senior Audit and Advisory Manager of Deloitte Ghana (DG) gave the advice at a day's capacity-building workshop organized in Accra by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Ghana and DG for financial reporters.

“Tell the public that company “A's” current value on the stock exchange was “X amount”, and that it has either reduced or increased to “Z” amount,” he said.

Mr Situ said in addition to the normal shares traded on the stock exchange, journalists needed to add comments on dividend yields (that is, dividend each year in relation to the share price), earnings per share (which indicates worth of each share) and price earning ratio (number of earnings to recoup ones price of share).

“Comments made in these areas also make the report on the Ghana Stock Exchange more meaningful to the public,” he added.

Mr Situ stressed that it would even be more useful to use the word “value” as an alternative to the term “market capitalization”.

Mr Lloyd Evans, President of the International Federation of Economic Journalists (IFEJ) urged reporters to upgrade their knowledge and understanding of financial matters by reading widely.

He expressed optimism that the participants would apply the knowledge they had acquired to better inform the public on the stock exchange and issues related to the new pension reforms.

Mr Raybon Bulley, Vice President of IFEJ urged the participants to access “Reuters glossary” on the internet to find simple alternative words that they could use in their reportage to make their stories and articles meaningful to the public.

He urged the young and upcoming reporters to broaden their knowledge base by asking relevant questions from the older and more experienced media practitioners and resource persons.

Mr Bulley called on ACCA Ghana to organize another workshop, within the year, on “Transfer Pricing” and “Secured Transactions” to upgrade the understanding of journalists in the areas.

Mr Norman Williams, Head of the ACCA Ghana, said the workshop formed part of the institution's strategic development partnership it had forged with the media for national development.

He said management was committed towards building the capacity of journalists on key issues of national interest.

Mr Williams reassured the participants of a stronger partnership which is expected to run into the future.

ACCA is the global body for professional accountants, with the aim of offering business-relevant and first-choice qualifications to people who seek a career in accountancy, finance and management.

It has a 154,000-member base with 432,000 students in 170 countries.

ACCA's office was established in 1997 in Ghana and it has more than 9,000 student population and more than 1,500 qualified members and affiliates.

Source: Ghana News Agency - GNA.