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18th Ghana International Book Fair to advance literacy in Ghana

The 18th edition of the Ghana International Book Fair (GIBF) is set to hold from Thursday 26th August to Sunday 29th August, 2021 (from 9am daily); at the National Theatre of Ghana, Accra. The theme for the Book Fair is “Ghana: A Nation of Readers for ...

The 18th edition of the Ghana International Book Fair (GIBF) is set to hold from Thursday 26th August to Sunday 29th August, 2021 (from 9am daily); at the National Theatre of Ghana, Accra. The theme for the Book Fair is “Ghana: A Nation of Readers for Development”.

Literacy is the foundation of development in every country. Developed countries are characterized with literate people who have the requisite human resource to create, innovate and devise suitable approaches to get things done in a progressive manner. It is in the light of this that the 18th GIBF is mainly focusing on the promotion of literacy among students from primary to tertiary as well as the general public.

The Ghana International Book Fair is an annual event organised to celebrate the rich Ghanaian culture through books. The main goal behind organising the Book Fair is to bring together all Ghanaian and international book industry players to exhibit books, creativity and innovations; explore business opportunities; organise literacy programmes for students; and hold workshops for the book industry to enhance the publishing of quality books. The 18th GIBF also aims at exposing readers to a wide array of books at highly discounted prices, thus creating literacy awareness and inculcating into the general public good reading and writing habits. The previous Book Fair in 2019 had in total 120 exhibitors and over 15,000 visitors participating.

One of the iconic events is the 18th GIBF Personality of the Year which is a session dedicated to honouring personalities whose exemplary efforts in promoting and enhancing literacy in general are worthy of commendation. This year’s Personality is Hon. Kojo Yankah (Founder & President, African University College of Communications). The event will take the form of a typical Ghanaian Story telling session where a conversation with the personality will be interspersed with literary performances. It will be climaxed with the presentation of award to the personality.

The Organisers of the Ghana International Book Fair have consistently been organising literacy programmes including reading programmes, spelling bee, debate and other competitions for students since its formation in 1996.

This year is not an exception. There will be a number of educative and interesting events for students from primary to tertiary.

There will be Reading with Champions which will run for the first three days. This event is a reading session that will feature politicians, celebrities, heads of organisations as guest readers to students from various basic and senior high schools in Ghana. Reading with Champions will offer a unique opportunity for the students to meet their favourite personalities and interact with them through reading. As a way of giving back to the society, the invited personalities would create a lasting impression in the minds of participants by emphasizing the importance of reading to them and how books have contributed to where they are today.

A special Dramatic Reading of ‘Adote Shelenkome’ in Ga dubbed “Ba W) Kane Nii” for tertiary will definitely activate the participants’ interest in reading and also appreciate literature in Ghanaian languages.

DigiRead Experience @ GIBF to be organised by Worldreader (on Day 1 &2) will explore the use of the digital space (World Reader app) to students as a means of promoting reading culture. It will feature reading with prominent personalities from Worldreader’s BookSmart.

The Ghana Publishers Association (GPA) as part of its 45th Anniversary celebration will organise SHS Debate Competition on Day 2 (27th August). The participating schools are Accra Girls SHS, Teshie SHS, Ebenezer SHS and St. John’s Grammar. There will also be National Orators’ Challenge for senior high schools.

“Poetry Connect with Prof. Lade Wosornu” will give opportunity to teachers/students of senior high schools teaching/studying “Raider of the Treasure Trove” as one of the selected African poems to meet and interact with Prof. Lade Wosornu regarding the poem. Special commentary on the poem will be given to participants for free.

Read to Play (Literacy Games) will run throughout the Book Fair. Students will read a book at the session before they will be allowed to play a literacy game which also opens human mind and exposes players to creative thinking.

Aside the literacy programmes for students, practitioners in the book industry will benefit from relevant training. On Day 1 (26th August), the following workshops will be held:

– Workshop on Importance and Online Acquisition of ISBN, ISSN and ISMN by George Padmore Research Library;

– Introducing Schools in Ghana to Discovering Education’s Digital Resources:

– DE Experience, DE Coding, DE STEM Connect, DE Math Techbook and DE Science Techbook by York Press

– Enhancing Print Quality by Print Plus Pvt Ltd., India

On Day 2 (27th August), the following workshops will be held:

– Common Book Publishing Issues and How to Avoid Them in Your Publication by Ghana Book Development Council.

– Strategic marketing of books

On Day 3 (28th August), workshop on Online Academic Book Publishing: Understanding How to Publish Academic Works Online will be held with the resource person Amos Ojwang, the CEO of Royallite Publishers, Kenya.

Book Launches

The Ghana International Book Fair provides a suitable platform for the launching of books. This year’s edition will launch book by Adwinsa Publications under the theme: “Read to save the environment”. The book will be launched by the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Hon. Dr. Kwaku Afriyie.

Sub-Saharan Publishers will launch their books (Day 3: 28th August) and Bureau of Ghana Languages will launch the book of translated poems by Prof. Lade Worsornu (Day 4: 29th August).

“African Children’s Literature and Sustainable Development” organised by UN SDG Book Club African Chapter and “Time with Authors” are some of the sessions that will climax the Book Fair. Time with Authors session will bring together authors to discuss their works, the contributions of writing as well as the challenges involved.

This year’s Ghana International Book Fair provides the best educational, literary and interesting atmosphere for students and the general public to learn under fun and tap business opportunities to advance the book industry for national development. It is worthy to note that the Organisers have put in place effective COVID-19 safety measures for the participants.

Source: Ghana Web

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