Ghana Publishers Association to hold Book Fair

Accra, Nov 01, GNA - The Ghana Book Publishers Association (GBPA) is to hold the first ever "National Book Exhibition" to showcase ingenious intellectual work and how the publishing industry had faired in the country for the past 50 years.

Mr Eliot Agyare, President of the Association, who announced this at Press briefing in Accra on Thursday said this year was an opportune time for publishers, to as part of the Ghana@50 celebrations, celebrate achievements of the publishing industry and how writing materials had contributed to national development. He said the exhibition, which would begin on Monday November 19 at the British Council in Accra with an open fair was also aimed at awakening interest, take stock and provide an opportunity to the general public to have access to old books that were difficult to find now. He said the event, which would include programmes such as symposia, workshops and conferences for stakeholders would also help them to take note of changes that the industry had gone through from independence to date and fashion out modalities to promote its growth. According to him, there would also be an award night to honour personalities who had contributed so well to the enhancement of the industry.

Mr Agyare said for the past 50 years, the publishing industry had managed to live up to expectation despite some challenges such as high patronage of imported books, which were cheaper because of tax exemption from the UNESCO Convention. He also expressed worry over poor reading habits and the Ghanaian taste for foreign products which he said, had retarded the growth of the industry. " Despite all these problems, we have a cause to also celebrate our industry for all these years. Ghanaian writers are also winning international awards and we are in no way inferior to our foreign counterparts", he added.