Owner of Kano’s biggest bookstore was inspired by dad’s huge library
Bookshelf: What inspired you to run a bookshop? Abdulmajid Yakubu Daudu: A lot. The quest for knowledge and the kind of upbringing I had. I grew up with a house full of books. My dad had a gigantic library. I inherited it from him even though he is still alive. And then when I saw […]
Bookshelf: What inspired you to run a bookshop?
Abdulmajid Yakubu Daudu: A lot. The quest for knowledge and the kind of upbringing I had. I grew up with a house full of books. My dad had a gigantic library. I inherited it from him even though he is still alive. And then when I saw the opportunity, I knew it was an area I wanted to venture into and quickly took it up. I majored in Political Science for my first degree when I was supposed to study Economics. I have always been interested in research.
Bookshelf: Where do you get your books from?
Daudu: I get them from places such as UK, Canada, and America.
Bookshelf: How are they brought over to Nigeria?
Daudu: I get them shipped in containers.
Bookshelf: How much does that cost you?
Daudu: It involves a lot of processes. Sometimes a container may go for N6 million or N8 million, and then shipping, clearance, transportation, loading and all that. This could be an additional N1 million or N1.5 million.
Bookshelf: For how long have you had this bookshop?
Daudu: It’s been over five years now.
Bookshelf: People say Nigerians do not read and this business works for you?
Daudu: Actually, I don’t believe in that. I don’t know where it came from that Nigerians don’t read. There is no scientific backing. I don’t know whether it’s because I have a monopoly in this business, because there is very little competition.
Bookshelf: The fact that you have little or no competition, is it that there are no bookshops around?
Daudu: It’s because of the uniqueness of my books. They cover a wide variety and also, if you go to the university there are limited books, so this opens up the market for me. They have limited books, but here we sell hundreds in just a particular area, for example in topics such as principles of auditing analyses and portfolio management, information technology in business, and arts and in areas like archaeology, anthropology, college language and so on. Also, we have books from world class publishers like Thompson Wordsworth and many others.
Bookshelf: Are they all new books?
Daudu: We bring in new books and sometimes we have used books because the market is worldwide. In advanced countries they look good and clean, except in cases where words are highlighted. In the UK we get them directly from their dealers, in America and Canada as well.
Bookshelf: What about Nigerian fiction?
Daudu: Yes, we have those written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, like ‘Half of a Yellow Sun,’ ‘Americanah,’ and those written by Helon Habila and so on.