Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Executive Chairman of African Business Center for Developing Education (ABCDE) has urged students to develop interest in learning other foreign languages in addition to what they know.

Dr Spio-Garbrah a former Minister of Education, said the world had become a global village and people who speak more than one international language were taking advantage to grow their businesses and other endeavours.

He said this when he addressed students from Achimota Senior High School (SHS), St. Thomas Aquinas SHS and Accra Wesley Girls SHS at a ceremony to commemorate International Literacy Day on the theme: ‘Literacy and multilingualism,’ in Accra.

The Former Minister of State observed that, it was best to learn a new language at an early age between four and ten, but added that; “even at the secondary school level those who did not have the opportunity to learn can do so.”

“Increasingly as you get into the corporate world or public services, you find out that in many job advertisements, they tell you a foreign language would be an additional benefit to the applicant. So it is better that at an early age as students you recognize the importance of adding other languages,” he said.

In a speech read on behalf of Mr Ben Hassan Ouattara, Managing Director of Vivo Energy Ghana by Madam Shirley Tony Kum, he said it was important for the students to realize the impact that language had in the world and in interacting with others.

He said learning another language in childhood improved cognitive abilities, adding that, fluency in multiple languages was also a catalyst for economic growth.

“Currently most businesses with global ambition are targeting workers with multiple language skills to navigate international markets readily without much resources or difficulties. This goes to say that you stand tall among your peers if you are able to learn other languages apart from English Language,” he said.

International Literacy Day is a day marked by United Nations and celebrated annually on September 8 to serve as an opportunity for governments, civil society and stakeholders to highlight improvements in world literacy rates, and reflect on the world’s remaining literacy challenges.

The program was organized by ABCDE in partnership with VIVO Energy Ghana.