In the early 1960’s while studying in Britain, a young Ghanaian Christian, John Agamah, learned of the work of Wycliffe Bible Translators and entreated them to send Bible translators to his country.

Not long afterwards, Dr. John Bendor-Samuel, was sent to Ghana by a partner organisation of Wycliffe, SIL International to assess the situation.  Among others, he met with the newly-formed Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana which was charged with developing Ghanaian languages and culture. It was agreed that SIL would work primarily in the largely undeveloped languages of northern Ghana, while the Institute for African Studies would continue language development elsewhere in the country. The first SIL staff arrived in 1962. The first complete New Testament was published in the Kusaal language in 1976.

In July 1980, the Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT) took responsibility for the work SIL had begun. Like SIL, GILLBT became an affiliate of the University of Ghana.