Brief History
The Ghana Publishers Association formally came into being on 10th March, 1976 as a registered non-governmental organisation to operate by the Registrar-General’s Department. The original executives and the founding publishing houses were: Mr. Courage Kwami Segbawu (Sedco Publishing Ltd), Mr. N. Adzakey (Ghana Universities Press), Mr. Abdul Brown (Ghana Publishing Corporation), Mr. Kwesi Sam-Woode (Afram Publications (Gh) Ltd.), Mr. Benibengor Blay (Benibengor Book Agency), and Mr. Mark Botsio (Ringway Press). Mr. Courage Kwami Segbawu, the founder of Sedco Publishing Ltd, was made the first President of the Association.
More History
The name of the Association was changed from Ghana Publishers Association (GPA) to Ghana Book Publishers Association (GBPA) when a new constitution was adopted by the members in 1978. The Ghana Publishers Association since its inception has had a number of Presidents supported by other Council members to make decisions for implementation by the Secretariat.
List of Presidents since inception to date
| Years in Office | Name of GPA Presidents | No. of Years |
| 1976 – 1980 | Mr. Courage Kwami Segbawu | 4 |
| 1980 – 1986 | Mr. Emmanuel Charles Tetteh | 6 |
| 1987 – 1991 | Mr. Eric Ofei | 4 |
| 1992 – 1998 | Mr. Richard Crabbe | 6 |
| 1998 – 2002 | Mr. Courage Kwami Segbawu | 4 |
| 2003 – 2005 | Ms. Akoss Ofori-Mensah | 2 |
| 2005 – 2009 | Mr. Elliot Agyare | 4 |
| 2009 – 2014 | Mr. Asare Konadu Yamoah | 4 |
| 2014 – 2016 | Dr. Samuel Osafo Acquaah | 2 |
| 2016 – 2019 | Mr. Elliot Agyare | 4 |
| 2020 to date | Mr. Asare Konadu Yamoah |
For all these years, the GPA was spineless but in 1991 the Canadian Organization for Development through Education (CODE) came to the aid with massive and timely institutional support, which enabled the association to offer something in return for the dues members had paid and had become weary of paying. The first time the Association had a massive support.
Currently, the Association has well-organised member-publishers with capacity to publish all types of books including educational and trade books. The Association has undergone a lot of developmental stages in terms of membership drive; training, advocacy and trade promotion programmes (achievements) and professionalism and now Ghana is said to be one of the African countries with robust publishing industries. The name of the Association was Ghana Book Publishers Association until Friday 8th November, 2019 when the constitution and the name was amended to The Ghana Publishers Association.
