NBTF ready to hold 2019 world book fair

All is now set by the Nigeria Book Fair Trust (NBFT) to host the world to this year’s edition of the Nigeria International Book Fair, scheduled for the University of Lagos (UNILAG). This year’s edition, 18th in the series, will hold for six days, beginning from Monday, May 6, with stakeholders in the education and book-related sectors around the world expected to participate.

Chairman of NBFT and president, Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA), Mr Gbadega Adedapo, made the disclosure, on Tuesday, in Lagos, during a media conference to highlight activities for the event, which has “Optimising New Technology in Book Development and Distribution for the Promotion of Book Trade in Africa,” as its theme.

BREAKING: 8 injured in another Ibadan building collapse

According to Adedapo, the executive secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hameed Bobboyi, would deliver the keynote address on the second day of the event, while the managing director of Okada Books, Okechukwu Ofili; the executive director of Sidmach Technologies, Mike Olajide; Vice President of ZTE Technologies Nigeria, Richard Xiang Pingnian and CEO of Spring Time Software, Chander Shekhar, would be the discussants of the topic.

Adedapo, who is the managing director of Rasmed Publications Limited, said the essence of the book fair was to promote effective reading as it had been doing since inception of the fair, especially among the younger ones in Nigeria and Africa by extension.

He said: “And for the first time in the history of the fair,  the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) and the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) will be fully involved in the event this year,” he added.

He also said the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu; Senate Committte Chairman on Environment, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu and the Vice Chancellor of UNILAG, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, among others, would attend the fair.