Showing posts with label #Education Minister on Local Printers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Education Minister on Local Printers. Show all posts

Monday, December 09, 2019

FG TO INCREASE PATRONISE AND PRIORITSE LOCAL PRINTERS, PUBLISHERS

To prevent the printing and publishing Industry from going moribund, the Federal Government has stated its readiness to prioritize their patronage over their foreign counter parts. 
This was revealed, recently in Abuja, by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, when a delegation from Academy Press Plc, an indigenous printer and publisher of educational and examination materials paid him a working visit. 
In a statement signed by Deputy Director Press, Ben Goong , this decision was necessitated by the need to support indigenous printers and publishers in line with the present Administration’s policy of local content usage, he said.   
In addition to this, Mallam Adamu stated the resolve of government to make the industry more conducive for practitioners through the evolvement of more enabling policies. 
To this end, he said that since government was aware of the industry’s huge job creation potentials, it behooves on it to make it more viable. 
In his remarks, Mr. Wahab Dabiri, Chairman of Academy Press Plc and leader of the delegation called on the Federal Government to render to the industry, the same support given the manufacturing and agricultural industries.  
Dabiri stressed that it was pertinent that government does this, especially in its current quest of creating employment opportunities in the country. 
The Chairman lamented that the industry, which has the potentials of creating huge employment opportunities and growing the revenue base of the economy, is currently producing below 50 percent of its capacity.
Speaking, Mr. Gbenga Ladipo, Managing Director of West Africa Book Publishers, a subsidiary of Academy Press Plc, pointed out that the use of foreign printers is inhibiting the growth of local printers. 
He stressed that if government does not intervene, the printing and publishing industry will go the way of moribund industries in the country. 
The Managing Director subsequently called on government to reduce the tariff on books produced locally which is as high as 35 percent while imported books are at zero tariff. 
He also called on government to industrialise the printing industry by ensuring the establishment of a paper mill in the country.  
Ladipo asserted that the establishment of a paper mill will enable local printers and publishers compete favourably with their foreign counterparts.