Make Ghana Publishing a profitable state enterprise – Oppong Nkrumah charges Board
The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has charged the seven-member board of the Ghana Publishing Company (GPC) to make the company “one of the profitable state-owned enterprises in Ghana.”
He indicated that the time has come for the company to expand its operations and become a full-scale publishing venture that caters to the needs of authors, writers, academics and other literary professionals.
He made this call when he swore in the Board of Directors of the GPC at the conference room of the Ministry on Thursday, September 9.
“Publishing is a technical area on its own and if we want to improve on the writing and publishing culture here in Ghana, the Ghana publishing company has the capacity to set up a fully-fledged publishing unit and go full throttle into it.”
This, he said, would make authors, writers, academics, fictional writers and people who want to go into full-scale publishing of literary works find the company as a very comfortable home through which they can work.
The minister tasked the board to structure its operations such that if an author signs with a fully functional publishing unit of the GPC, they can expect GPC to do everything.
This includes copy-editing, media training of authors and illustrators, creating marketing materials to promote the book, deciding which retailers to approach to stock the book, and persuading newspaper and magazine editors to run reviews.
Digitalise operations
On digitalisation, Mr Oppong Nkrumah urged the GPC to join in the government’s ongoing digital revolution and move their sales and distribution operations online to improve access to the company’s products across the country.
“We are in an era where digitalisation is improving access to public service, and it is providing more convenience to the Ghanaian consumer at home. So we ask you to focus on taking what you did in the first term by taking that physical place now online,” he said.
He, however, lauded the company for the modest strides it has made in modernizing its book store or sales centre, in addition to having banking units that are in there to receive cash to reduce inefficiencies.
Remarks by the Chairman of the Board
The re-appointed Board Chairman of GPC, Dr Daniel Owusu-Ansah in his remarks said, they would be committed to digitalisation of the company’s operations and introduces modern publishing practices, to serve the country better.
“We are very hopeful that this time round, we will not just be counted, but of course, we would like to be very great in the subregion, that we will become a reference point for printing and publishing in our part of the world,” he said.
He used the opportunity to express their appreciation to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for appointment.
Board Members
The seven-member Board includes re-appointed Managing Director of GPC, David Boateng Asante, Paul Twum–Barimah, Dr Kingsley Nyarko, Madam Lawuratu Musah–Saaka, Mr Isaac Kofi Appiah, Madam Beatrice Barwuah, with Dr Owusu-Ansah, as its Chairman.
About the Ghana Publishing Company
Ghana Publishing Company (formerly called Ghana Publishing Corporation) was incorporated on March 9, 1965 under Legislative Instrument number 413.
Subsequently, the amended by L.I. 672 of December 11, 1970 made them take over the functions of the former government Printing Department and the administration of the government’s free textbook schemes.
The company exists, primarily, to print and publish quality books and stationery for educational institutions, government departments and the public at competitive prices.
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