How to promote book industry, by stakeholders

TO further bridge the gap in the book industry in Nigeria, there is a need to create a template where all stakeholders can come together periodically and form a coalition to ensure social economic and financial stability.

  The President, Booksellers Association of Nigeria and Member, Board of Directors, Nigerian Book Fair Trust, Olusoji Popoola, disclosed that this at the 2015 Academy Press Plc Customers’ forum held in Lagos.

 According to him, “there is a need to encourage healthy competition among multiple winners, identifying common issues, enemies and interest and pull resources together to further the interest of the trade”.

  He maintained that in bridging the gap, there is also a need to discourage betrayal tendencies among stakeholders by rewarding loyalty appropriately and an increase in advocacy and participation in the government activities.

 The Chairman, Academy Press,Simeon Olusola Oguntimehin, at the event, stressed that as borderless as the industry is it behoves on individual nations to create the enabling environment that will make its local industry to thrive as no nation would sacrifice its own industries for foreign interest and expect to grow its economy or be truly independent of foreign domination.

  “A country should consistently strive to make its local establishment to be more efficient by continus practice as only through such process that an organization can rise to world class standard.” Oguntimehin added. 

While shedding light on the achievements of the Academy Press so far, Managing Director, Academy Press Plc, Gbanga Ladipo, said this year the company will be 50 years in operation and over the years “we have followed the trend of retooling and modernizing the facilities, adding that recently the company acquired and new equipment worth over N15 billion”.