The Capital Market Authority (CMA) in partnership with Media High Council (MHC) trained journalists on how to report on capital market. The workshop at Gorilla Hotel was attended by over 30 journalists from different media houses.
The Executive Director of CMA, Robert Mathu says that information plays a vital role in the development of the capital markets and journalists are at the forefront of bridging all the players together.
“At the end of the day the media plays a very great role in promoting the capital market,” he said during the opening of Training for the media on reporting on capital market. Mathu added that the acquaintance of journalists with the capital markets will help increase public participation which is currently low due to lack of awareness on the market and the need to invest there in.
“This initiative (training journalists) is actually aimed at ensuring that information reaches out to the public,” he added.
He said that that to sustain the current country’s growth, there is a need to raise long term funds for key projects, a reason why the country opted to start capital markets. The country’s Rwanda stock exchange currently has seven companies listed. “So it was important to build a strong capital markets to address the challenge,” he added.
The Executive Secretary of MHC, Peacemaker Mbungiramihigo said: “We have noticed that economical and financial reporting is one of the gaps which should be filled by the media.”
He added that this is indicated through research on capacity building, citing the need to empower media practitioners with skills on covering issues related to the economic and financial sectors regularly.
“Media practitioners should enhance their knowledge and skills because if their experience develops, it enables our media to be more competitive and to serve the needs of citizens,” said Mbungiramihigo.
The MHC is in charge of building media capacity in Rwanda and it conducts trainings that are guided by a five-year strategic plan which is adopted by media stakeholders.
The workshop was aimed at helping journalists to provide balanced, impartial and accurate information through skills training in covering the market, be able to report on regular basis on the performance of the market.