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Investing in the African Publishing Industry

By Donald Hagbe
Africa Investing in the African Publishing Industry
MAY 6, 2015 LISTEN

“Knowledge is power”, such a statement couldn’t be more true in our modern ever fast moving technological times. One part of the African industry which seems to have been left behind is its book publishing industry. Despite reaching the mark of almost a billion in habitants, the publishing industry in Africa, accounts for about 2% of what the world publishes. Something must be wrong, just by considering the heritage, culture, philosophy of the African continent and its people.

The short comings of the African publishing industry are just too many to enumerate. But what we are planning to do with Wivela Publishing Services, is to try to bridge the parties involved in the whole supply chain, and see how we can share and spread information and knowledge to Africa and across Africa.

We deeply believe that by improving the access to information in Africa, we will be able to improve the age of digital publishing in the continent. It is without a doubt that the access to informations and knowledge through digital means will increase the exposure and growth of the African publishing industry, in the same way, it happened in the West. As it currently is, the African book industry is being kept alive by Western NGO and commercial entities who supply them. But as they increasingly adapt to digital publication, there woudn´t be many books to be donated to local libraries in Africa. Alongside, another issue raises our attention, as, one of the predominant causes of the current malheur experienced by the African publishing industry is its lack of skills, know-how and tools necessary to develop the industry as it happened in the West.

We believe that in the medium term, printed material will continue to exist, despite the ever growing exposure to digital content. This due to the enormous difference between economies in Africa and the diversification of the population. More than 62% of the continent population lives in poverty, making access to tools facilitating digital innovation impossible to obtain. A continue supply of good educational materials will remain vital for the African continent. NGO’s enabling the access and distribution of books in Africa and local libraries will continue to receive printed books from Western publishers but this will increasingly deminsh as in the case of dictionaries which are seeing the end in their donation due to the high level of e-dictionaries in the West causing a substantial diminish production in the West.

Wivela Holdings- Wivela publishing services Wivela Holdings- Wivela publishing services

Digital rights management and initiatives like Open Access might mean that a lot of helpful content would be offered in digital formats, for free. The adoption of the technology required to access digital content is huge, likely to be light-emitting diode by the burgeoning middle categories, and wishes to be supported by continued investment within the infrastructure required to confirm such devices area unit able to run – broadband, 3G and 4G, and electricity. It’s hoped that donors of all natures can still have an interest in funding and facilitating seed innovations toward the provision and spread digital content through Africa.

Underlying social and infrastructural problems are further barriers against universal access to digital content in the coming years: People residing in remote areas still lack access to the infrastructure for getting, charging and maintaining reading devices and mobile phones. They’re additionally possible to be the poorest and thus, such having repercussion on their book and digital content purchasing power.

Technological and infrastructural problems are slowly being addressed by local governments. Some areas of African economies have seen a positive improvement through the use of Mobile phones techonologies. They create the possibility to reach isolated communities, through 3G and 4G broadband capability. Clever solutions to several issues have cropped up, particularly around mobile phones – some supported by Western NGOs and/or African or international governments, some entirely native solutions. There will still be distinctive African solutions to those issues.

Whether or not access to digital content expands, libraries will stay to be the foremost effective model to optimise the exposure to books, and quantity of users per book, ready to give access to data for the widest vary of individuals. From tiny community libraries in rural areas to giant municipal libraries, libraries should stay central to providing access to books for various African people. Providing support to libraries, librarians, lecturers and oldsters and different readers will be one of our main focus areas.

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