‘How used books can change Nigeria’s fortunes’

Bookshelf: What is the Used Books Initiative all about?Elijah Olanrewaju: Generally, you will agree with me that the reading culture amongst Nigerians has not been at its best in recent years. We recognize the efforts of government and other private initiatives to improve on this behavior. Therefore, what we are trying to do is to […]

Bookshelf: What is the Used Books Initiative all about?
Elijah Olanrewaju: Generally, you will agree with me that the reading culture amongst Nigerians has not been at its best in recent years. We recognize the efforts of government and other private initiatives to improve on this behavior. Therefore, what we are trying to do is to contribute our quota to boost these efforts. Often times, Nigerians will be looking for a specific book in their area of interest and the pains of going through several bookshops is one major setback, let alone know how to go about it. The few bookshops that have shown capacity in setting up online shops are possibly only carrying the titles. So there’s a limit in scope of what one can get, especially because online e-commerce is beyond setting up websites. What it takes to succeed in online e-commerce platform is much more than that and that is why with the help of God, we have decided to put in place an online service, such that when you think of books either in hard or soft format, you think bookdey.com, where Nigerians can easily access these books at the snap of their fingers.
Personally, I had two experiences a couple of years back. I needed the original Yoruba version of the classic by late D.O. Fagunwa titled ‘OgbojuOde ninu Igbo Irumonle’ (Forest of a thousand Demons as translated by Prof., Soyinka). I live in Abuja, so we searched everywhere and made phone calls, but couldn’t get any. I was privileged to get a copy in Ibadan, Oyo state, after several searches. I couldn’t locate a copy in Lagos and almost gave up if not for the importance of the research work I needed it for. Secondly, very early this year I needed a book that had just been published in the US. Amazon.com had it, but I couldn’t get it from any of their local agents around. I had to get a relation in the US to help purchase and ship down here. As we speak I’m yet to get it. With this new initiative we want to see how we can eliminate such difficulties and delays. Ultimately, we want to help local bookshops who can’t afford to make the online investment, so they may have a place where they can display their titles for free. In addition to that, we want to help Nigerian authors and publishers simplify the business of authoring, managing and delivering their content to the general public.
The idea was to have a swimple market place for used books before we decided to expand it. We are aware of families who can’t afford brand new books and those where the same set of books is filling up space and almost becoming a nuisance to them. What rules economies today is knowledge and so any group of people that want to amount to anything in the now and near future must not only embrace reading culture but its people must make reading a habit.    
Bookshelf:  How would you deal with issues of intellectual property rights in an era of growing digital theft?
Olanrewaju: We have put measures in place to ensure that Intellectual Property (IP) right is not abused. For example, in combating the menace of IP abuse of ebooks, we have a digital right management (DRM) infrastructure to protect people’s works.
Bookshelf:  How will this benefit the Nigerian economy?
Olanrewaju: The economic benefit of this platform is huge, both directly and indirectly. What we are doing will help several authors, bookstores, and publishers extend the frontiers of their offerings beyond their city markets to not only Nigerian markets but international frontiers. This will give them the capacity to attract foreign market. We will help several authors to be able to reduce cost of marketing by providing an immediate packaging tool for the e-book market place. Our innovation will lead to the rise of new authors that will be self-employed. What we are doing will also let ordinary Nigerians make extra income from used books that is occupying space. If people can make money by writing new books and selling their old books, it will reduce the level of poverty in the country. Also, it will develop reading culture and make Nigerians more innovative. The multiplier effect can only be better imagined.
Bookshelf: What is your assessment of Nigeria in terms of skills and local manpower needed to change the digital landscape?
Olanrewaju: We have the people but the skill is not something we can boast of at this time. Our young men and women need to put on the right attitude. But I have seen a lot of younger folks ready to do that. So very soon, you will see changes. The reality is getting clearer to us all that we can’t be left behind and need to be responsible for the building of a better nation.