On viability of Nigerian printing industry

Adieu Mohammed Aderemi Lawal. It was April 9, 2022 that the cruel hand of death took away Mohammed Aderemi Lawal but information to this effect did flittered to me on April 15, 2022. I commiserate with his entire biological family, Nigeria Printing & Allied Industries especially Association of Professional Printers of Nigeria (ASSPPON), the worthy mother of Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria (CIPPN).

Alhaji Lawal as he was popularly called was a visionary who brought together many people across Nigeria to achieve his plans of birthing CIPPN without thorough knowledge of the dictates of a chartered body called CIPPN.

He was also a dogged fighter who never believed that anything was impossible to achieve as long as the end result tallied with first, his personal goal and secondly any other considerations.

The glory for the establishment of Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria CIPPN through Act 24, 2007 goes to God with Alhaji Lawal as an able tool through his doggedness without which the birth of CIPPN would have remained a mirage.

Alhaji Lawal ably succeeded in leading every other men and women to plant the seed of Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria CIPPN and I pray God in His infinite mercy will choose those who will be watering the CIPPN tree.

1 Corinthians 3:6-9: 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. In other words, CIPPN is a tree that must not be allowed to suffer undue neglect in the hands of those who are supposed to continually water it.

 

The challenges of Nigerian Printing Industry

In dealing with the above topic, I will like to reproduce the article I published in LinkedIn in 2014 but now edited.

With reference to the recent policy on book importation tariff in which the minister of finance and coordination minister on economics Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala approved in a ministry circular on the 28 February but applied from the 1 January 2014 and suspended again till September 2014, there have been reactions through meetings and comments from both the stakeholders and hired commentators on the viability of the policy. For the avoidance of doubt, the only aspect that really changed from the old policy of 0% on book importation is the new 20%. Every other figures or percentages are rightly termed developmental levies which could be extended to other areas of Nigeria economy. The ‘yes’ votes for this policy are majorly Nigeria printers even though; many of them are not familiar with book publishing/printing. The ‘nay’ votes are the book publishers, corrupt government officials that indirectly benefited or benefiting or about to benefit from this unpatriotic motive to kill this well-deserved policy to promote the eventually growth of the Nigeria Printing Industry with resultant effect on book development. Because when Nigeria printing industry is developed, the paper industry, printing raw materials like ink, films, plates and other inputs shall receive adequate attractions from both foreign and local investors that would be very much eager to invest in this living and fertile industry thus bringing down book production cost. With these, many unpublished authors of well – researched and deserved books could now be encouraged due to low production cost of books that could go to the press. This will also facilitate the availability of good books in the hands of teachers, students and various libraries through various books distribution channels like the bookshops thus providing and promoting employment opportunities to teeming jobless Nigerians youths.

With the foregoing in the minds of printers, they are saying the introduction and implementation of the policy are overdue because the old policy has taken not only butter from their bread, but even the flour to bake the bread away from their tables right from the time the outgoing policy came to be.

The publishers and their friends are said to be citing one 1950 UNESCO Convention Treaty that member countries must allow free entry of books into their countries as if Nigeria was the only one that signed the treaty because we have not seen South Africa or Egypt coming to Nigeria for their books; We are not saying that Nigeria should jettison this treaty but self preservation and patriotism must override any destructive treaty. Besides, how many of the operators of the publishing houses really know the actual text of this so called treaty? Where were internet, IPAD, Blackberry and desktop publishing in the year the treaty was signed?

From the face value, one is tempted to come along with the arguments that the Nigeria printers do not have the capacity and capability to meet the demands of the book publishers in terms of print price, quality and delivery schedules. These arguments cannot be totally true because it’s like one that’s trying to cover the entire sky with one’s palm. In the 1990’s Evans Brothers (Nig. Pub) Ltd. Longman Publishers Ltd, Macmillan Publishers were printing in Nigeria minimum of 150,000 copies each of Effective English; New General Mathematics; Taiwo Kehinde; France Afrique respectively. Where book importation was carried out at all at that time, it was less than 20% of the required books’ need of each publisher.

These were in the eras when many of the big publishing companies in Nigeria were called glorified bookshops because they were just outposts for foreign based publishers until the indigenisation decree transferred ownership of the businesses to Nigerians. In terms of quality, one could remember that one of the publishing outfits in Ibadan in the 1990s whose managing director at that time is now having huge investment in print production was fond of saying students were not interested in print quality but the readability of the text matter. He came about this argument then when printers complained of not patronizing established printing companies because of the quality of t6 books being pushed to market by his company. In terms of capacity, the problem with most of our books publishers at that time was their confinement of patronages to their immediate environments. In the 1980’s through 1990’s, foremost books publishers in Ibadan would go as far as Kaduna to print books to be sold in the North or Owerri for those to be sold in the east. This was confirmed recently in a meeting midwife by Manufacturers Association of Nigeria MAN between Nigeria Printers and the book publishers to find midway solutions to the current book importation’s tariff. The very few printing organizations invited, represented and in attendance in this supposedly vital intervention were from Lagos as if printing starts and end up in Lagos. Many of these attendees probably have not dealt with any book publishers before yet majority of the established publishers have up to 50 medium and large printing companies on their lists. Apart from this, the major printer that publishers patronized in India today was first introduced to Nigerian market by Chief Joop Berkhout the erstwhile chairman of Spectrum Books Ltd in the 1980s through early 1990s. At that time, one was told that the printer had only two printing machines but today according to those that have visited the same printer, he operates from his owned printing company’s village, courtesy Nigeria publishers patronages.

To crown it all, we are all complaining that the governments are not doing enough to promote local industries, yet our book publishers has thrown patriotism to the wind by promoting unemployment in Nigeria and improving the economies and technology advancement of their foreign customers. We shall wait till governments via Universal Basic Education Council UBEC at all levels will be awarding book supplies directly to India, Dubai and Malaysia Book Publishers at the expense of our ‘compatriots’, the Nigeria Book Publishers.

Again, the ‘nay’ voters’ for this new but suspended policy has come up with campaign that tertiary education shall suffer if this policy is maintained. Brilliant idea! Can the book publishers tell Nigerians the volume of their tertiary books importation compare to the pre – nursery, nursery, primary and secondary education books? I guess most of them that are now using the tertiary education as an excuse will not want to touch this area with the longest spoon because of little returns on investment on this specialized sector. Every day, the media carries out issue on unemployment, yet some group of people are still fighting to increase the menace.

Our ‘nay’ voters complained that Nigeria three paper mills are not working thus adding to the problems of high print prices. One will be advised on how the private investors that bought these paper mills would be encouraged to invest further in the sector when they know that 80% of the expected customers would love to continue to print outside Nigeria.

In most cases the three major reasons always adduced by book publishers as summarized are:-

1. It is cheaper to produce the books in those countries than Nigeria.
2. Nigerian printers do not have both qualitative and quantitative capabilities to meet their demands.
3. Book pirates among Nigerian printers are on the increase.

As mentioned earlier, according to them, printing books abroad is very relatively cheaper than printing locally n Nigeria. While we appreciate that printing equipments; inputs – papers/boards, printing films, plates, inks and other consumables are manufactured outside Nigeria which make them cheaper to purchase by printers in those countries than Nigerian printer, labour cost in Nigeria effectively compensate for the cost of prints inputs` . Even at this, apart from the printing equipments which could not be manufactured immediately in Nigeria, raw materials for other inputs are currently available in considerable large quantity in Nigeria.

1. a) We have trees for paper pulp already planted and available in South West and Akwa Ibom/Cross River States.
2. b) The aluminum plates, polyesters for printing films and ink pigments from hydrocarbon can be produced in Nigeria if Aluminum Smelting Company and Eleme Petrochemical Industries are allowed to function properly.
3. c) The light sensitive materials for printing films and plates is just the egg albumen which could be obtained from our poultry farmers in Nigeria
4. d) Cow gum for preservation of work – in – progress plates is also available in Nigeria.

Also, if we put into consideration other incidental cost associated with getting the books eventually into book publishers’ various warehouses before distribution to various depots across Nigeria; the actions become more relative than expected.

Contract for book printing abroad are probably paid for three months before commencement of production by the foreigners whereas printers in Nigeria are paid long after delivery. In most cases, the payment is made after the sales season by the book publishers.

From the point when the contract is signed and collection of the printed books at the Nigerian seaports, it will take almost seven months for the processes (almost three months for actual production and shipment; two months on the high sea; port clearance another two months) to be completed.

Installed Capacity: on the issue lack of installed capacity, this is not totally true because there is no equipment in any part of the world that are not already installed in Nigeria but because of lack of patronage, the room for new acquisition has eluded the Nigerian printers. In any case, why do we forget easily the experience and growth of India Printing Industry? When India started exporting paper into Nigeria in the early 1980’s, those of us working in book publishing industry refused to recommend the usage of the papers because of poor quality but the reverse is now the case. India papers are in high demand today in Nigeria because of its relative high quality and cheaper prices. Practice makes perfect.

Book Piracy: The book piracy is a criminal action which has increased tremendously more than when books were produced in Nigeria. This fact cannot be denied by anti-piracy agency. The agency is fighting a battle with the pirates without adequate involvement with Nigeria printers because they know Nigeria printer’s involvement in book piracy is minimal and manageable. If all the above facts are presumed to be wrong, patriotism on the part of governments and the book publishers should override other considerations.

We hope the intervention of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria will be patriotic enough to genuinely minimize the continued printing of books abroad and also reduce the high development levy imposed on book publishers but not the actual tariff which is just 20%. Because M.A.N’s primary function is to be seen to be protecting the manufacturing sector of Nigeria and not India because

• These overseas printers do not pay taxes here to Nigeria government for developmental purposes.
• Patronizing these overseas printers is contrary to the law of the land as stipulated by Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria Act 24, 2007 Section 23 – (1)(b)the council ensure that no firm or partnership shall practice as printers in Nigeria unless it is registered by the council. (these foreign printers claimed they are not practicing printing in Nigeria yet the contract are obtained and financed through money wired to their various home countries’ banks through our Central Bank of Nigeria; after completion, the books are delivered to Nigeria, bought and read by Nigerians. When few of them that showed some level of respect and contacted the regulating body and were asked to come and invest in Nigeria if truly they believe in Nigeria, they quietly turned back and maneuvered their ways through corruption web of government establishments to obtain large book printing contract . A case of robbing Peter to pay Paul)
• Deprives our teeming youths’ employment opportunities without plans for technology transfer that could empower Nigerians today through tomorrow.
• Frustrating the revival of the papermills which has been bought by these rich foreign paper importers through Nigerian fronts without plans to make them viable. In other words, they probably bought the papermills to enable them stop patriotic Nigerians that had genuine interest in buying the papermills and then stop the paper importers from continuing their ventures. Even if moribund papers Mills are revived today and start production of various grades of papers, there will be little or no patronage because the publishers that are supposed to be the major customers do not need the papers since they print books abroad.

However, while books publishers have their own business to run to the satisfaction of their shareholders and if they feel the best way to carry this out is continued books printing in India with 0% import duty at the expense of book development in Nigeria, so be it if the government of Nigeria so permits.

Nigeria Printing Industry with its violent run to the grave through self destruction is the next focus. Like the Yoruba adage, amukun eru e wo, o ni wo isale. Literally, when you see a collapsing building, the first suspect is the foundation.

Nigeria Printing Industry is one of the oldest industries in Nigeria but it has been bedeviled by lack of homogenous voice since 1800s because the players and the so – called leaders in the industry lacked the basic element of strength in unity, selflessness and vision. All they want is today’s bread and butter on their table without caring what will happen tomorrow. Ask any of the leading printers in Nigeria today whether they will like any of their children to study printing technology/management; they will quickly swear – NEVER! So, whenever the owner has cold, the business catches catarrh. When they travel, the business travels with them. The owner dies, the business dies. The succession plan is zero. We all want to concentrate on building printing Business Empire on the air without the slightest interest in developing the printing profession and professionals forgetting that without adequately catering for the profession, the printing business would continue to wobble. This has been our experience over the years. Many associations have been formed in the past and many are coming up with sole aim of getting printing contracts or immediate ‘bread and butter’ on the table which the politicians now call ‘stomach infrastructure politics’. The question agitating the mind is what has been achieved in the more than 100years of printing existence in Nigeria with this approach.

When individual big players in Nigeria printing industry approaches the governments on policy issues negatively affecting their organization, printing tycoons are always been politely turned down and requested to come to government as a well-structured body. When they hit this brick wall, they will quickly call their friends to form one ineffective disjointed association, then off to the government. Again, the usual government response is the order of the day because the government officials they are approaching understand little or nothing about special peculiarities (professionalism and business) of printing industries. This lack of vision and focus to make sure printing voice is developed in Nigeria; they end up abusing the leadership of government as if the president is all-knowing. This approach of promoting Business Empire devoid of professionalism caused the demise of Nigeria Textile industry. We should learn one or two lessons from Nigeria Pharmaceutical Industry. Before the advent of NAFDAC, the industry was a dropping ground for all sorts of drugs but today, the industry is better regulated and viable. It’s the professionals that drive industries and not the business outfits. How many medical hospitals are operating without the professional medical doctors and pharmacists? Professionals determine how the industry is regulated and thrives.

Another shortcoming that is making the industry to be very irrelevant in Nigeria is that the practitioners failed to come together as a unified association. All we have are disjointed associations scattered all over the country. We have failed to know that building a strong institution is the panacea to virile industry.

One major attempt to do this was the struggle to have a chartered body which came into existence in 2007. This institute was bedeviled by internal crisis from the onset orchestrated by ‘Nigerian Factor’ that never wanted the industry to be regulated. The institute after 15years of existence cannot be called an institute but mere association being managed through whims and caprices of selected and advantaged entrepreneurs who are engaged in printing business but most of them are from different professions without further training in Printing Technology and Management. This Simple factor is the cause of premature winding up of printing establishments.

Among the functions of the institute, Section 7. – (1) The Institute shall:

(a) Determine, in accordance with the provisions of this act, the qualifications and skill to be attained by seeking to become registered members of the printing profession and reviewing the standards, from time to time, as circumstances may permit

(b) Secure, in accordance with the provisions of this Act, the establishment and maintenance of register of fellows, members and associates of the profession and printing practitioners and publication, from time to time, lists of those persons

(c) Promote the advancement of education in the sciences and arts of printing, book-bidding, design and graphic communication in all forms

(d) Promote examinations and appoint examiners and assessors to co-operate with any other examining body and award or recognize certificates, diplomas or other awards made to those who passed approved examinations

(e) Promote and encourage original work and research, or development leading to innovation in the science and art of printing, bookbinding, graphic design, graphic communication and to publish all useful results of such research

(f) Collect, process and disseminate all printing data and information within and outside Nigeria

(g) Ensure the international standards and practices in printing operations are maintained;

With the above, one thought the Nigeria printing industry was on the way to Eldorado, but alas the reverse is the case. It has been turned to and managed by as “our association” by flotsam and jetsams. Details of how we missed the vital route is well known to the practitioners but the courage to hit the nail on the head is our bane.

Another challenge: Since independence, the number one printer in Nigeria then was Federal Government Printer who was also on the same grade level as director general now being called permanent secretary. Today, visit Federal Ministry of Information; I am sure, the Federal Government Printer or in acting capacity will be a level 12 or at most 14 person. As we are all aware, such officer is far away from being part of policy makers of the ministry yet, when governments want to take important decision on this vital industry, they ask for the federal government’s printer’s advice that will be subjected to so many non – professional officers’ comments and approval who knows little or nothing about printing professional and business. At the end of the day, nothing comes out of the issue at stake.

A case in point of government deliberate policy to destroy Nigeria printing Industry was when this writer and some other colleagues sent a proposal to the then Hon. Federal Minister of Information – Labaran Maku on how the Nigeria Printing Industry could generate one million employments in three months in line with the transformation agenda of former President Goodluck Jonathan Transformation Agenda. A reply was quickly sent back to us and personally signed by the permanent secretary. Few days after, a letter of invitation was received to meet the Hon. Minister. The letter was signed by Director, Library Services sidelining the Director of Printing of the ministry. On the appointed date, we got to the ministry and to our greatest surprise; we were not on the protocols list or agenda of the day of the minister. We went to the director that signed the invitation letter; he claimed the letter was just given to him to sign by the office of the permanent secretary and that he did not read it. As a matter of fact, he had no copy. It was the letter in our hand that he photocopied. When we were eventually attended to after we threatened to call a press conference on the issue, the then special adviser to the honourable minister Mr. Henry Angulu appealed to us that we should wait for the minister who directed us to meet the permanent secretary who came in by 4.30pm for a meeting scheduled for 11am. After about 5minutes, the permanent secretary ruled that we should go and submit the proposal through CIPPN. The same body the Federal Ministry of Information has refused to interact with or given any type of recognition. This is so because there was never a time the ministry ever invited CIPPN to any function organized by the ministry even though all other professional bodies in the ministry’s purview were always invited. The same non-charlatan attitude is in replica in state owned government printing companies. Many state governors has turned their state government printing companies to waste pipes by just paying salaries and wages because when printing matters are required, they become jobs for boys without any reference to government printers whereas the motives or law is to pass all government printing needs through the government Printer. This contrary to dictates of Act 24, 2007. What all we passed through and dreamt of to get the CIPPN is now being circumvented.

• Today, copyright council and book publishers are fighting piracy without input or involvement from printers.
• The National Procurement Agency summoned and held meetings with professional groups in the country without even thinking of CIPPN
• Governments at all levels patronizes non – printers and other professionals for printing jobs without even thinking of Act 24, 2007 which correctly forbids individual and groups who are not registered printers from being patronized because printers refused to put their house in order.
• Book Publishers still prints at least 90% of their books in Malaysia, Dubai and India and pay almost 100% of the contract value in advance but when they decide to give the leftovers to Nigerian Printers at publishers’ price, they pay when able after months of delivery.
• Financial institutions especially banks finds it difficult to assist printers because of their perception of the industry.
• The Nigerian Papermills are moribund if not dead, yet we have Act 24, 2007.
• The issues of retraining and printing training institutions like Yaba College of Technology, Kaduna Polytechnics and Institute of Management Technology, Enugu are being relegated to the background contrary to the provisions of Act 24, 2007.
• The Federal Government Press is made a department as against a parastatal in Federal Ministry of Information contrary to what operates all over the world just because we could not change the perception on printing as just ink on paper syndrome of both governments at all levels and the Nigerian public.

As mentioned earlier, one major organization that is contributing adversely to the development of Nigerian Printing Industry is the ever sick baby adult called Federal Government Press, with the body at Malu Road, Apapa, Lagos and soul at Abuja. This organization, like many government run agencies to our mind refuses to grow to maturity because of corruption, intrigues and parochialism. Although, it was supposed to be 100% funded by government but it also used to be a revenue generating agency unlike its present status ‘a drainage pipe’. It was reported some time ago that the infrastructure put in place at Abuja was more than N450m (four hundred and fifty million naira) and yet the press could not boast of N30m (thirty million naira) of functional new equipment- Putting old wine in a new jar!

In other clime,

1. The Federal Government Printing Office’s FGPO core mission should be keeping the public informed through prompt printing of all documents regarding the work of the three branches of Government. This is the inherent function of Government which FGPO carries out for Federal agencies on behalf of the public.
2. FGPO should be the Federal Government’s primary centralized source for gathering, cataloging, producing, providing and preserving published information in all its forms.
3. Many of our Nation’s most important information products, such as the Congressional Record, Federal Register and gazette are supposed to be produced at the FGPO main plant. Like every other country, FGPO ought to be the largest information processing, printing, and distribution facility in any country but the reverse is the case in Nigeria.
4. In addition to the agency’s production facilities, FGPO should also be able to procure between 600 and 1,000 print-related projects a day through private sector vendors across the country. The majority of Government’s printing needs are met through a long-standing partnership with country’s printing industry.
5. FGPO should be able to competitively buy products and services from thousands of private sector companies in all 36 States. It is one of Government’s most successful procurement programs, assuring the most cost-effective use of the taxpayers’ money.
6. FGPO should be the epicenter of technological change, embracing a historic mission while looking to the digital future.
7. Employers of labour. The agency if properly funded and managed should be able to employ 2500 skilled personnel.
8. Apart from the above, many organisations like Bureau for Public Procurement; Independent National Electoral Commission INEC; Joint Admission and Matriculation Board JAMB; National Population Commission NPC etc with huge annual budgets that run into several billions of dollars never included professional printers in their boards/management with wrong perception that printers were illiterates or quacks with resultants effect on wrong decisions on printed matters’ specifications; price; quality and delivery deadlines.
9. According to Nigerian Tribune Newspapers of November 20, 2009, Federal Government distributed textbooks worth N4.2billion to junior secondary schools across the 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. This very amount was just the minimum of governments’ expenditure on printing of textbooks alone. By the time we add up the spending of other arms of governments and the private sector, this would be in the region of N500billion. Majority of the printing are carried out annually in India, Dubai, Malaysia etc without any thought of the effect on our economy and development of Nigerian Printing Industry.

From the above and many other factors enumerated, we find it difficult to see that there is no specific organ of governments that coordinate or monitor this vital sector of economy.

 

The way forward

With all these happenings, Nigeria printers have not learnt any lesson to come together as a body but busy fighting to get huge contracts which our forefathers did and could not put the industry on solid foundation and yet we are still following this sick and crooked path.

As at today, Nigeria printing industry does not have a voice in government and we erroneous believe another professional body will lift us from the pit we are in. We are just like the proverbial ‘Wiseman’ that was trying to safe- keep his expensive gold dust by putting it in the tray and with few corns and took them to a pen full of hungry hens, the hens ate the few corns and used their leg to scatter the gold dust into the ground full of their waste.

In view of the above, we need to rise up as a body to fight the myriad problems by quickly convening all inclusive Stakeholders Meeting irrespective which association we belong or which part of the country the printer is operating from. We strongly suggest that current supervising Minister of Information should spearhead this vital meeting to chart a new way for the development of Nigeria printing industry

This stakeholders meeting will involve representatives of the list below because printing cut across many industries.

• Federal Ministry of Education and its state counterparts
• Federal Ministry of Information & Communications
• Federal Ministry of Industry; Commerce; Justice; Finance and National Planning
• Financial Institutions
• Nigerian Book Publishers
• Nigerian Printers
• Nigerian Police
• Institute of Journalism and Newspaper proprietors associations

Below are suggestions as to the agenda of the proposed stakeholders meeting:-

1. Proper implementation of Act 24, 2007 establishing Charter Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria.
2. The status of the Federal Government Press empowering the Federal Government Printer for effectiveness.
3. The acquisition of the existing papermills or building new ones through genuine private partnership
4. Enhancement of existing tertiary institutions to produce first class graduates in printing technology and management.
5. Inward approach toward building Nigeria printing industry.

Another way out is for the Invigoration of is the appointment of Special Adviser: Nigeria Printing & Allied Industries. This becomes more necessary because printing by its nature cut across many disciplines and departments of governance – information; commerce & industry; finance and national orientation agency and the only business ventures or professions without strong government attention or monitoring but yet it is supposed to be a multi – billion dollars revenue generation concern like cocoa, oil, culture and tourism etc.

 

Suggested responsibility of the special adviser: Printing & Allied Matters

The immediate principal responsibility of the special adviser is the preparation of blueprint for the development of Nigerian Printing & Allied Industries through the following.

1. Because printers are the end users of papers, the special adviser shall coordinate and work with other various stakeholders to make sure that existing papermills (Iwopin Papermills, Ogun State; Jebba Papermills, Kwara State and Oku-Iboku Papermills, Akwa Ibom State) in the country not only come back to life but be seen to be working optimally to meet the paper demands of the industry within the next two years. This action will reduce cost of production of printed jobs like books, magazines/journals, newspapers etc by about 45%.
2. Coordinate and work to encourage petrochemical products’ manufacturers to enhance the production of printing inks, printing films/plates and other related inputs which have abundant raw materials in Nigeria.
3. Coordinate and work with Nigerian Society of Engineers and other stakeholders for the design and manufacture of Nigerian printing equipment. India is now manufacturing printing equipment.
4. Coordinate and work to standardize various aspects of printing especially the costing and production systems as it is done in other professions like building/civil engineering, pharmacy, medicine in order to discourage the printing of jobs outside Nigeria with resultant effect on the enhancement of the capability and capacity of Nigerian printing industry.
5. Coordinate and work to ensure that the existing tertiary institutions are well equipped both in manpower and machinery.
6. Coordinate and work with professional bodies in the industry to produce more vibrant professionals for the advancement in printing technology and management to enable Nigerian Printing Industry compete effectively in the fertile global market.
7. Coordinate and work systematically and effectively with financial institutions and related bodies to make investable funds available to stakeholders of Nigerian Printing Industry.

• Adebambo sent in this piece from Ibadan.

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