African Publishing

Africa Rise and Shine

The COVID-19 outbreak has had a devastating global effect in almost all sectors, including the publishing industry in Africa. Many African publishers are said to be overdependent on selling printed textbooks to governments, a one-track business model that has had a catastrophic impact on them when COVID-19 closed schools and drove learning online. Now, the Africa Publishing Innovation Fund (APIF) committee, led by the international Publishers Association (IPA) and comprising veteran publishers from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia, and South Africa, believes cultivating reading for fun in Africa - especially among children and young adults - stands to bring the continent wide socioeconomic advancements to the industry in the long term. More from Brian Wafawarowa, a member of the APIF committee…