The President of the Booksellers Association of Nigeria, BAN, Mr Dare Oluwatuyi and the journalist and writer, Richard Mammah, have jointly presented their new book, The Nigerian Booksellers Directory 2021.
The Directory, which is a product of a year long cross-country research activity, contains a listing of bookshops and bookselling organisations all over the country. It also aggregates data on tertiary institutions as well as tourist sites in the country and attempts a contrast with earlier data obtained from a near similar exercise in 2005.
Speaking at the presentation of the e-edition of the Directory 2021 on Wednesday, participants made a strong case for the greater incorporation of data in the planning and development needs of firms, organisations and the nation, overall.
The event which took place on the Zoom electronic platform was presided over by the Director General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, NCC, Mr. John Asein and hosted by the President of the Booksellers Association of Nigeria, BAN, and Managing Director of CSS Bookshops Limited, Mr. Dare Oluwatuyi.
Explaining the motivation for the project in his welcome address, Oluwatuyi revealed that there were, indeed, two principal drivers:
‘The first was the need to find and connect with the vast array of booksellers in the country and bring them into their natural habitat as fully performing and very active members of the Booksellers Association of Nigeria. Since we did not have the data to work with, we had to go out there to gather it.
Second, we were also very conscious of the fact that both for our professional security and continuing leverage among other factors, we needed to have a Directory of this nature that we are presenting today.’
Making his remarks at the occasion, the Director General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission affirmed that BAN and indeed the entire book trade could count on the NCC’s support at all times:
‘The Commission will continue to collaborate with the Booksellers Association of Nigeria to promote professionalism and encourage legitimate booksellers to allow publishers recoup their investment, reward authors and significantly improve on the contribution of the book sector to national economy.’
He also hoped that the initiative would also help in stimulating similar activities from other component units within the Nigerian book trade:
‘I urge the Booksellers Association of Nigeria to ensure that the initiative is sustained. I look forward to similar publications from other major stakeholders in the copyright sector to help identify legitimate practitioners in their respective sectors. You may rest assured that the Commission will continue to support every such initiative to promote our common goal to grow the book sector for the good of the country and the benefit of humanity.’
Reviewing the book at the event, journalist and writer, Olayinka Oyegbile, PhD remarked that one of the enduring strengths of the publication lay in the aggregation of data.
‘I salute this modest effort of BAN. There are rooms for improvement and the need to do better. The directory has gone a long way to give information on booksellers across the country and anyone who intends to buy books or do business with any of these just has to get a copy of this book and look for contact addresses. To compile a directory that captures all the 36 states and the federal capital territory is not a day’s job.’
The print edition of the Nigerian Booksellers Directory is billed to be presented at another event later in the year.
The Booksellers Association of Nigeria, BAN is the umbrella association of Booksellers in the country.
