The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), and the German Development Agency (GIZ) have launched a coordinated regional effort to tackle the growing threat of disinformation and misinformation across West Africa.
The collaboration is being rolled out through a specialised training programme themed “Information Integrity and the Fight Against Disinformation in West Africa.”
The initiative, part of a wider ECOWAS-GIZ regional training framework, is equipping journalists and media professionals with cutting-edge tools to detect and counter false content.
Similar workshops have already been held in The Gambia and Sierra Leone, with upcoming sessions scheduled for Togo, Benin, Cape Verde, and Senegal.
In total, 315 journalists from state and private media, newspapers, and digital platforms are expected to benefit. Training modules cover AI-assisted fact-checking, deepfake detection, open-source intelligence (OSINT) verification, and digital security protocols.
Speaking at the Ghana edition of the workshop on Monday, September 29, held at the Marriott Hotel in Accra, ECOWAS Resident Representative Mohammed Lawan Gana urged journalists and institutions to take collective responsibility for safeguarding public trust.
“Truth is often challenged with misinformation and disinformation. Without efforts to combat them, social security is threatened,” he said.
The workshop also spotlighted the dangers of deepfakes, which have already been deployed in Ghana to clone the likenesses of President John Dramani Mahama, former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, and former Minister of Information and MP for Ofoase-Ayirebi, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.
Also present were Dr. Kojo Impraim, Director of Media for Peace and Social Cohesion at MFWA, and Daniel Boehme, Deputy Head of Development Cooperation at the German Embassy.
By Ruth Esi Amfua Sekyi – [email protected]
