Charles Ayitey, Broadcast Journalist

Charles Ayitey, Broadcast Journalist

Charles is a business journalist working and living in Ghana. He hosts a highly watched business program, ‘The Marketplace’. He also works as a journalist in ‘Voices for Peace’. 

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There are some passionate individuals in the world who do not work merely for money, instead, they work for a purpose. They make the right use of their position in society and educate people for social good. Our guest for today, Charles Ayitey, is one of such personalities. Charles is a business journalist working and living in Ghana. He hosts a highly watched business program, ‘The Marketplace’. He also works as a journalist in ‘Voices for Peace’. He is quite passionate about Youth Enterprises Development. He has also been awarded for his work in journalism.

About ‘Voice for Peace’ and Charles’s role as a Journalist there

‘Voice for Peace’ is an advocacy group that bases its advocacy on data. They are working in Ghana and across the African continent to help people understand how data is instrumental to democracy. Charles calls the ‘Voice of Peace’ an instrument for change and a pivot for development. Charles considers himself honored to be a part of it. He is helping them with a platform to share information with society.

Balancing between being an unbiased Journalist and an Activist

Charles tells us that the thing that guards his conscience as a journalist is the feeling of being factual and not partial. Keeping this in mind, Charles says that he has no problem shifting to one side if the facts, and neutrality are not compromised. 

He says that being partial means that one is going with one party, just for the sake of personal bias. Being neutral means that one is going with the facts of the situation on the ground. Charles being neutral tries to stick to both sides of the coin and creates a balance while conveying the message to his audience.

Who is the Target Audience when he posts stories about young Entrepreneurs on LinkedIn?

Charles is a business journalist and has been seen posting stories about young entrepreneurs on his LinkedIn many times. He tells us that there are many young entrepreneurs in Africa who are doing amazing jobs but they do not have a platform to showcase what they are doing to the world. By sharing their stories on his LinkedIn profile, he is providing them with an international platform.

When Charles posts stories, he sees three groups as his audience. They are:

• People of the African diaspora
• Prospective investors
• Young entrepreneurs of Africa 

Why did Charles write against the skin Bleaching Products?

Charles believes that skin bleaching is a counter-assault in African countries. After the foreign movement in Africa, many ladies and men wanted to look white just like the people they saw on television. To get white skin, people of Africa started using skin bleaching products. It rose to an extent that the Food and Drugs Authority of Africa raised concerns about the harmful effects of these products on people’s health. The skin cancer cases in Nigeria started to rise. All these things formed Charles’ decision to write an extensive article against it, featuring Ghana’s leading boxer Bukombanku. 

This article later got the attention of the BBC World and they wanted to dig the topic deeper not just for the health factors, but also for the economic factors. Later, Charles was awarded for writing that article and bringing such an important topic to light.

How has 2021 Affected his Life?

As the pandemic had hit in 2020, all the countries were suffering and Charles says that the worst-hit section of the society was the entrepreneurs. As a journalist, Charles took it as an opportunity to tell their stories of the sufferings to the world. He realized that the supply chain and the import and export were deeply suffering because of the pandemic and he had to bring onboard the business associations to solve this. They held massive workshops for this and a national debate was started to provide a stimulus to the entrepreneur industry in Ghana.

How does Charles want the world to remember him?

Charles wants the world to remember him as a journalist who puts the entrepreneurs on stage.

Advice to the Young Entrepreneurs starting their Careers

Charles advises the young entrepreneurs to explore the products they produce for their society and they need to be aggressively innovative.

• Business journalist based in Ghana working for the Multimedia Group – Joy News.
• Produced telling news stories bothering socio-economic comparisons in the sub-region while staff writing for Face2Face Africa.
• Selected among other African business journalists to report on the 2019 Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) Trade Summit in New York, USA.
• Deconstructed entrepreneurship in Ghana and the Sun region through human interest storytelling.
• Managed a talent pool of over 150 freelance campus writers for a mobile-app news channel – Scooper.
• Moderated thought-leadership conferences and fora premised on topics bothering entrepreneurship, doing business in Ghana and Africa, and youth development.
• Aiming to be a journalistic powerhouse telling stories of entrepreneurs on an international news platform in the next 5 years.