Book Aid International to donate £500k worth of books to Ghana libraries

UK charity Book Aid International has signed a partnership with the Ghana Library Authority (GhLA) to supply the country’s public, school and special libraries with books, reports Ghanaian news outlet GhanaWeb.

Currently, the GhLA has only 531,865 books on its shelves, down from over one million books in 1980. Under the new partnership with Book Aid International, the GhLA will receive yearly donations of books valued at a total of over £500,000 (A$900,000) per year, an unprecedented number of books for the library authority. The agreement comes alongside other Ghanaian government investments in book acquisition to help resource the country’s libraries.

GhLA acting chief exective Hayford Siaw said: ‘Fortunately for the GhLA, our current president has an astounding interest in education, and he is committed to ensuring quality learning environments for everyone, especially children, hence the renewed commitment to strengthen the public library system to deliver on its mandate.’

Siaw added: ‘In the past few months, GhLA has created the largest book processing unit for any public library system in West Africa. We have established a new acquisition and distribution unit, all in a bid to support the transformation of libraries in Ghana.’

Book Aid International was established in 1954 and has sent 32 million new books to libraries worldwide. It currently supplies books to 12 African countries and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Category: Library news International