Publishers set for 2023 conference, AGM Dec 7, 8 in Lagos

THE Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA) will, on December 7 and 8, converge at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, for this year’s conference and annual general meeting (AGM).

The theme of the conference is, ‘Revitalising Local Production of Paper in Nigeria: Panacea for a Sustainable Publishing Industry and the keynote paper on the theme will be delivered by Dr Rotimi Oladele, a former managing director of African Newspapers of Nigeria Plc.

The publishers will use the opportunity to highlight the challenges facing the industry, especially with the country’s 100 percent dependence on imported paper.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune on the event, chairman of the conference planning committee, Mr Lukman Dauda, lamented the hardship publishers go through to procure paper for the production of books.

Mr Dauda, who is also the Managing Director of Evans Brothers Nigeria Publishing Limited and Vice President of NPA, said the objective of the conference and AGM will be to get the attention of the government to wake up to its responsibilities and encourage the local production of paper.

The publishing expert said the government would achieve this by creating the enabling environment for investors, both local and foreign, to set up business in the country and to produce at lower cost.

He said the publishing industry is at the forefront of the educational sector, “because we can’t talk about the state of education without the access to books, and we will continue to use all avenues to encourage the government to focus on policies that will make it easier for students and other members of the public to have access to books; and that includes encouraging local production of paper.”

Also corroborating Mr Dauda’s position, the Executive Secretary of the NPA, Mr Emmanuel Abimbola, said a lot of publishers are struggling to survive, adding that part of the reason is the high cost of imported paper.

He said the conference would bring together industry stakeholders and particularly the government to look at the challenges publishers are facing, which automatically is also the challenge of the educational sector.

Mr Abimbola said after the presentation of paper by the keynote speaker, there will also be a panel discussion by experts in the publishing and printing industries, where issues relating to the operations of the publishing industry would be discussed.

He said to carry the government along, a formal invitation had been sent to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and its representative will be engaged on how to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive, especially in the paper industry.

At the end of the event, Mr Abimbola said he hopes the association would have been able to present the challenges it is facing to the government “and hopefully, government will come up with policies that will make it easier for investments to be made for the local production of paper.

“When this happens, publishers will be able to access paper locally and also cheaply and this will definitely drive down the cost of production.

“It must be noted that today, many publishing firms are struggling to survive, but when the issue of local paper production is sorted out, then we would have overcome one of the challenges facing the industry.”

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