Mbaasem Foundation, a non-governmental organization is working on developing a National Literacy Manifesto lay out specific guidelines to advance literacy in Ghana. Executive Director of the Foundation, Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo who disclosed this at a meeting with the media at the International Press Centre in Accra stated that the reported literacy level in the country of 65 percent includes functional illiterates stressing that in actual fact only four million people in Ghana are highly literate enough to manage the country. ”Ghana’s country report of 65 percent literacy rate is an exaggeration indeed” Prof. Aidoo said noting that Ghana lags behind other African countries whose citizens are fully literate in their first languages. Prof. Aidoo emphasized that our collective illiteracy is one of the root problems for Ghana’s underdevelopment. She added, that in Ghana the process of literacy learning where first language or mother tongue is used to learn a second language does not take place, the teaching and learning of Ghanaian languages is not done effectively, thus we waste the advantages that our first language brings to the learning of a second language. It is in recognition of these that the Mbaasem Foundation proposed to lead the development of the literacy Manifesto for Ghana. The non-partisan manifesto funded by STAR-Ghana at one hundred and eighty thousand US dollars will present a set of guidelines and actions that will aim to drive the entire society towards improving literacy outcomes for both children and adults. A consultative process that will draw from a broad base of stakeholders will be used in developing the manifesto. The Manifesto which also takes inspiration from the Ghana Women’s Manifesto has several objectives. The overall objective is to provide a platform of a common set of demands to promote literacy in Ghana for use by government, businesses, educational institutions, religious institutions, the media, parents and the general public. Some other objectives are to address issues related to our Ghanaian languages, so people do not use the number of languages we speak in Ghana as an excuse not to effectively learn and apply their use in our total development. Specific sets of guidelines will also be laid out for the improvement of literacy for girls and people with physical and other challenges. Prof. Aidoo congratulated the media for their good work, particularly in their use of local languages but expressed concern that the use of our languages in the media is only oral hence the need for much work to be done as far as written literacy is concerned. She asked for the media for their support charging them to be sensitive to the class anxiety related to the English language and take the role of literacy seriously in their own work. Consultative meetings will be held with political parties in the development of the Manifesto and it expected that the literacy manifesto will be ready in three years.