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An interview with daily trust on Fri, 27 Nov 2015 reference; https://dailytrust.com/how-to-revamp-writing-publishing-in-north/ Ibrahim Abdullahi Muhammad, alias Ibzar, is the Managing Director of Ibzar Publishing Company with head office in Jos and branches in Kaduna and Kano. He spoke with Bookshelf on the challenges facing writing, the printing and publishing industry in the North and how to turn things around in the region and Nigeria as a whole. Excerpts:Bookshelf: What inspired you to venture into printing and publishing business in the Northern Nigeria?Ibrahim Abdullahi Muhammed: When I was a teenager, I liked reading a lot. I remember I used to buy Nasiha, a Hausa newspaper at N1. I also love drawings and cartoons, so anywhere I saw newspapers, billboards, text books, and Jotters, I asked myself how such items were made or manufactured. This curiosity drove me to venture into publishing and printing business in order to see for myself and share the knowledge with anybody that wanted to know.Bookshelf: How long have you been in this business and what challenges are you facing?Muhammed: I started this business in 1999 and the challenges I am facing are enormous but surmountable. One of them is the environment I am from, which is Northern Nigeria. The region is lagging behind in the publishing business, despite our population. We don’t have the x-factor that will encourage writers and make them to compete with their contemporaries in other parts of the country. If you look back meticulously you will find out the text books used in northern Nigeria’s schools 50 years ago up till now are books published by companies from other parts of Nigeria. This is a challenge on the part of our economy because patronising them creates jobs for their youths and strengthens their economy and concomitantly decimates ours. Therefore, I want to use this medium to give a wake-up call to our governors to have a good look into the printing and publishing business in the north.I am not saying government should only give us loans, but when we publish books that are of great importance to schools, we want them to purchase them for schools to use. By doing so, the companies will create employment for the teeming writers that are sitting idle, and our companies will be encouraged to produce qualitative books and simultaneously boost the economy. I am not insinuating a stop to patronising books from other parts of this country, but for our government to focus more on purchasing books produced by northern printing and publishing companies. And the writers here know our culture and religion therefore they know books that will have instant impact on our people.Bookshelf: What achievements are you most proud of since you ventured into publishing?Muhammed: I brought awareness to most printing companies in northern Nigeria, I opened their eyes to realise that they can also publish books, before they only focused on calendars, political posters, jotters and stickers. I also employed more than 22 youths, with about 19 apprentices.Bookshelf: What do you think are the reasons behind the north’s backwardness in terms of writing and publishing?Muhammed: We have excellent and exceptional writers in the north that are supposed to focus on writing on different aspects of life, but they only centre their themes on love stories. I am not saying that part is not important, but why should we focus on one theme? That’s my argument. The north is a complete dynasty. We have areas like administration, culture, security and traditions. What we are lacking is blending what I aforementioned with this digital generation. I strongly believe if our writers will write on different topics and subjects to benefit nursery to tertiary institutions, knowledge and education will be better. Now look at our population. We have a lot of questions to ask. We go to school, but why will we not write on subjects that will benefit our students either in Hausa or English, to aid learning in the region? We have the market because of our population, but we don’t have the books to sell.Bookshelf: You said northern writers only focus on love stories. Can you be more specific on the subjects and topics they should write on?Muhammed: I want our writers to write on most, if not all of what is on government’s curriculum, and I also want the government to assist the writers by providing whatever they need to help them blossom. I know many writers that can write well but they don’t have the capital to publish their books.Bookshelf: Some writers in the north say the challenge of readership made them dump writing. What do you have to say about that?Muhammed: I totally disagree with their opinion, because in the world of reading there are people from the north. A lot of people memorise the holy Qur’an, many Hadiths and books written by many scholars. My question is, ‘where are the books that such writers claim lack readership?’ I want to know the number of books written by the northerners.Bookshelf: How do you think writing and publishing will boost the economy of the North and Nigeria in general?Muhammed: Now let’s assume each parent has a son or daughter in school and buys at least 20 exercise books per term.  Now let’s take for example each parent buys one 60 leaves exercise book at the cost of N40. Forty times 20 will equal N800. Now assume each parent has five children in school, now multiply N800 by five, you will get N4000. Now if we have 10 million parents multiplied by five children, you will get N4.1 billion. In the north, we don’t have any company that publishes exercise books. We get them from other parts of the country. So there is a big market in the north due to our population. What if we focus on text books and other storytelling books that are costlier than exercise books? Our government will generate money through publishing and our economy will sky-rocket, and by doing so more job opportunities will be created.Bookshelf: You were talking about the challenges

interview with daily trust on Sun, 3 Jul 2016. reference; https://dailytrust.com/govt-should-invest-in-smaller-publishers-ibzar/  You once described writing and publishing in the north as being in dire state. Is that still the situation?There is improvement now because after I had series of interviews on what needed to be done to revamp writing and publishing in the north, a lot of writers met me and I gave them the guidelines on writing provided by government. I told them that if they wrote based on the guidelines, their books would not be in vain. To my greatest surprise, a few months after, some of them came back to me with their manuscripts, following the guidelines I had given them. Some of them wrote nursery school books and some wrote on topics for junior secondary school. I am proud of what they did.Now that there is improvement, how will your company publish their books?We are trying to see that government starts considering publishing companies from the north. Some of the books we published by such writers include: Skills in English Communication, Social Studies, Civic Education, Islamic Studies, CRK, Security Education and Nursery English among others. What we want is for the government to patronize these books for use in the schools.What kind of agreement does your company enter into with the writers before you publish their books?Each publishing company has rules, regulations and guidelines that it uses before publishing any material. Some will agree with joint ventures, while in others, the company will take care of the cost of printing, publishing and distribution and the writer will get a percentage on each book sold. Some companies only buy the copyright of the books, but our policy is flexible, it depends on what was discussed and agreed.What advice do you have for the writers?I want writers to remain focused and resolute in writing what will impact the society positively, I also want northern writers to look at what their contemporaries in other parts of the country are doing and be better than them by being innovative, creative and skillful. They should also write on English, science and technology, culture, security, agriculture, health and education. What are the challenges facing publishing companies in the north?The main challenge facing these companies is lack of patronage from all tiers of governments. Government does it give them assistance, it only focuses on big and strong companies, and this action thwarts the growth of publishing companies in the north.How do you think these companies will overcome the challenges facing them?The best approach for the publishing companies to grow is for the government to assist them. I don’t mean government should give these companies money, but rather patronize them, buy the books they have published. This will boast the economy. I didn’t also say government should stop patronizing big companies but to expand the patronage to reach the smaller ones. This will boost the publishing industry because a lot of people will get jobs starting from the writers down to the marketers. You have spent decades in the printing and publishing industry, how do you think the industry can create job opportunities in Nigeria?If you can find out about the writing and publishing industries in other countries you will be amazed because their writers are rich. The writing and publishing industry is big enough to create millions of job opportunities. My only appeal is that, there is a need of government to focus on writing and publishing in the north, doing so will generate employment in the region. Don’t forget, due to our population there are a lot of readers who can sustain the publishing industry in the country.Before a book is published there are a lot of people involved. It involves the writer, it also involves management, business, and financial occupations which comprised of general and operational managers, marketing managers and sales managers. On professional and related occupations, it includes graphic designers and editors. On sales and related occupations, it consist of first-line supervisors/managers of non-retail sales workers, advertising sales agents; sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing. On office and administrative support, it involves customer service representatives, secretaries and administrative assistants and office clerks. On production, printers come into play; then transportation and material moving. A lot of people are benefiting from the publishing industry. Therefore, if government will focus on this industry, millions of job opportunities will be created.What call do you have for the government in order to assist the publishing companies in northern Nigeria?Considering the blueprint and change agenda of the APC-led administration, I believe if this government said it will do a particular project, it will. I said this because the education sector is one of the federal government’s cardinal project it wants to embark on. Previous governments will budget money on education and at the end, nothing will be done, therefore I urge this government to assist and patronize publishing companies in the north in order to boost the economy of the region, most especially now that there are northern companies that have teamed up to take our plight to the federal government.

At IBZAR Publishing Company, we take pride in ensuring that our books reach readers efficiently and securely. Our dispatch process is carefully structured to guarantee timely delivery while maintaining the quality of our publications. Below, we outline the steps involved in dispatching books to various states across the country.