Ifechuba and Shoki, Part 6
Conclusion
From the analysed data, it is safe to conclude that e–publishing has many interesting features that are easy and cost effective to adopt in Nigeria. Many of these innovations have been adopted by the majority of local publishers.
Innovations that aid setting, editing, digitizing, uploading and downloading book products are already adopted by a reasonable number of publishers. They seem to be afraid, however, of exploring the local market possibilities for fear of lack of energy infrastructures, appropriate reading habits and computer literacy. For this reason they concentrate on the global market by selling e–products to foreigners through the London–based African Book Collective and by distributing imported e–products to local readers. In case they care to develop the CD–ROM and audio CD markets, however, the technology appears to be available.
Printing hardware has not changed much with only 28 percent adoption for machines with digital facilities, sometimes for the printing of annual reports, calendars and outdoor posters rather than books. The CD replication studios seem to have concluded that Nigerians are not ready for book products. They have therefore turned their attention to music CDs. Their face–off with the Copyrights Commission seems to suggest that they are having a field day in the music sub–sector. In a story with the headline “NCC Seizes Pirated CDs, DVDs, Worth N10 Million in Lagos” The Punch (2007) painted a picture of the battle raging between the NCC and the replication studios:
| “Yesterday (Wednesday) we dealt with replication outfits that refused to comply with the rules and regulations. To ensure that piracy is tamed at source, the Optical Disc Regulations (Act) was enacted. But up till now many of the operators have not complied with the rules.” |
The essence of the above statement is to buttress the conclusion that the technology for the local production of optical discs has been widely adopted, but employed in the production of musical rather than book products.