Printers Urges FG to stop INEC, UBEC, others’ patronage of foreign companies

The Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria (CIPPON) has appealed to the Federal Government to come up with policies to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) other agencies from patronising foreign printing firms.

CIPPON President Olugbemi Malomo, the national president of CIPPON, made the appeal in Abuja at the Nigerian International Paper and Pulp Summit, tagged: ‘Bridging The Gap In Local Pulp And Paper Production in Nigeria’. Malomo made it known that the heavy reliance of the Federal Government’s major spenders like INEC and UBEC on foreign printers is killing the local printing industry. He added that the country was importing printed material worth over N1 trillion on annual basis, a situation he noted was not good for the nation’s economy.

“A few months from now we shall be having our general elections.
Hundreds of thousand of tons of paper costing the nation billions of naira will be used in the elections, and I want you to know that all the papers will be imported,” Malomo said.

“If we are going to make meaningful development, and move from a consumer nation to a production one, we need a paradigm shift whereby big government spenders like INEC and UBEC should be using our money to develop local production capacity”

“The Federal Government should come up with a deliberate policy that would make its big spenders like the INEC and UBEC to be part of the solution to local paper production.

“With 60 percent of Nigeria’s population in one school or the other, over 1. 2 billion books are printed annually in Nigeria. All the paper used is imported into the country.