All You Should Know About The 18th NIBF.

Stakeholders in the education and book-related industry around the world gathered at Jelili Adebisi Omotola Hall, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos State, Nigeria, for the annual NIBF hosted by Nigeria Book Fair Trust (NBFT) on Monday 6th May to Saturday, 11th May 2019. At a press briefing ahead of the event which was tagged, ‘Optimising New Technology in Book Development and Distribution for The Promotion of Book in Africa,’ Mr. Gbadega Adedapo, Chairman, Nigeria Book Fair Trust and President, Nigerian Publishers Association discussed the theme of the event at a press briefing before its commencement. He explained that the book fair was essential for the promotion of active reading culture among Nigerians. For the first time in the history of the annual NIBF, Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) and the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) were fully involved in the book fair.

The keynote address was delivered by Hameed Bobboyi, Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC). In attendance were prominent Nigerians including Okechukwu Ofili, Managing Director, Okada Books; Mike Olajide, Executive Director, Sidmach Technologies, Richard Xiang Pingnian, Vice President, ZTE Technologies Nigeria, and Chander Shekhar, CEO of Spring Time Software; they were all part of the panelist discussion during the event. Apart from prestigious members of the public who graced the event with their presence, Oluremi Tinubu, Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment; Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Science and Technology; Yewande Sadiku, Executive Secretary of Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission; Osita Aboloma, Director General, Standard Organisation of Nigeria; Yahaya Amfani, Chief Executive Officer, Yaliam Press Limited, and Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, were all in attendance. Among the insightful activities that took place during the Fair, the National Library of Nigeria (NLN) gave a sensitisation workshop for publishers and authors on digitalisation of ISBN and ISSN in line with the theme of the event.