The Minister for Education, Hon. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has revealed that the government has since 2017 added 50 more libraries to the 61 existing libraries.
“The ministry in the last five years through the Ghana Library Authority (GhLA) has added 50 libraries to the existing libraries making a total of 111 across the country,” he said.
This revelation follows the question asked by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kwesimintsim, Dr. Prince Hamid Armah about how the ministry is developing digital library infrastructure to enable learners to access electronic resources in the light of the exigencies imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Adutwum also noted that ten mobile library vans have been refurbished with books and computers and are currently in use by learners.
According to the Minister, GhLA has deployed a digital library that is available on Play Store and App Store for download on smartphones, allowing every Ghanaian to access the curated books on the digital shelves.
“This digital library is zero-rated by Vodafone and MTN,” he added.
In a follow-up question, the Kwesimintsim MP while commending the government for contributing to about 45 percent of the total library facilities in Ghana within the last five years, asked the Education Minister about the status of the Bono and Volta regional libraries.
The Minister in his response informed the house that those regional libraries are currently under construction, however, “we want to personally appeal to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) that releases should be rapid enough so that we can see rapid activities going on so that finally these two libraries will be completed.”
President Akufo-Addo and Asantehemaa, earlier this month, inaugurated the ultra-modern Edward Akufo-Addo and Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Apem II public libraries respectively, making them Ghana’s 110th and 111th public libraries under the management of the GhLA, in the country.
