Get Guardian on GoogleManaging Director of Academy Press Plc, Oluwakemi Ogunnubi, has called on the Federal Government to take steps to moderate the importation of books that can be printed locally, saying overseas printing is reducing the volume of work available to Nigerian printers.
Ogunnubi made the call after the company’s 2026 Annual General Meeting, where she said the growing practice of printing books abroad was putting pressure on local printers already contending with high operating and production costs.
According to her, some publishers now print part of their orders outside Nigeria because production costs can be lower in countries with more stable infrastructure and operating conditions.
She explained that a publisher with an order for 1,000 books, for instance, could decide to print 600 copies abroad and only 400 locally, thereby reducing the volume of work available to Nigerian printers.
“It reduces the volume. But you can’t blame them. They are businessmen and women,” she said.
Ogunnubi said the commercial decisions were understandable from the perspective of publishers but were affecting the volume of printing activities available to local operators.
She therefore urged the government to create an environment that would make local printing more competitive while encouraging the use of Nigerian printers for books produced for schools in the country.
“Government needs to moderate the importation of books that ordinarily can be printed in Nigeria and create an enabling environment for local printers to participate more in the production of books for Nigerian schools,” she said.
The managing director explained that Academy Press operates within a value chain involving publishers, schools and parents, noting that publishers ultimately depend on consumers’ ability to pay for books.
She said schools could not simply pass the full increase in costs on to parents, while publishers were also reluctant to raise prices sharply, leaving printers to absorb part of the pressure through reduced margins.
On the company’s performance, she said Academy Press recorded an operating profit in its 2025 financial year despite the difficult business environment, although the profit was lower than that of the previous year.
Ogunnubi explained that the 2024 result had been boosted by extraordinary income from the disposal of a parcel of land in Abuja, stressing that Academy Press was not a real estate company and that the transaction was not part of its normal printing operations.
