‘Develop vibrant policies to increase investment in book industry’

The Ghana Publishers Association (GPA) is calling on government to develop vibrant policies and increase investment in the book industry to provide employment opportunities for the youth.

According the GPA, the lack of investment has resulted in the current slow growth of the industry.

The president of GPA, Asare Konadu Yamoah, was speaking in Accra yesterday at the swearing-in ceremony for 11 new executives to steer the affairs of the GPA for the next three years.

The new executives are Mr Edward Yaw Udzu of Allgoodbooks Limited as Vice President, Ms Dorcas Gyamfuah Gyabeng of Afram Publications Ghana Limited as  Secretary and Mr Kwabena Agyepong  of Education and Logistics as Treasurer.

 The rest are Mr Berifi Apenteng, Mr Emmanuel Nyarko, Fred Larni, Kingsley Mate-Kole, as non-executive members while Reuben Glover and Pamela Woode were sworn in as co-opted member and ex-officio member respectively.

Mr Yamoah said the School of Publishing Studies at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology will now offer courses such as administration.

“Today it is providing manpower for other businesses rather than their core responsibility,” he said.

 He said the vibrancy of the book industry would be determined by the investment stakeholders put into the effort of advocacy, adding that the advocacy should be able to expand the book industry’s influence in the country.

He urged the association to put together a strategy that would ensure that solutions were available while focusing on deepening engagements with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and other relevant institutions.

Mr Yamoah said  it was the responsibility  of the  association to ensure that  books  were considered  an important  cultural  product  worthy  of state preservation  that also provided  an excellent opportunity  for the promotion of history  and culture.

He called for the development of national strategies regarding books and library development and secures guidelines for the promotion of books in indigenous language.

BY JEMIMA ESINAM KUATSINU