‘Traditional publishing not profitable’

Bookshelf: How did you start off as a printer?Onisemus Agado: I thank God because I started this job on the 10th of June 1974 as an apprentice in Tudun Wada, here in Kaduna. The name of the press was Santana Printing Press. I spent three years in my apprenticeship. I graduated in September 1977 and […]

Bookshelf: How did you start off as a printer?
Onisemus Agado: I thank God because I started this job on the 10th of June 1974 as an apprentice in Tudun Wada, here in Kaduna. The name of the press was Santana Printing Press. I spent three years in my apprenticeship. I graduated in September 1977 and my MD said out of all the boys, I was the most cool-headed, so he asked my senior brother to allow me stay with him for some more years so I could get more experience and exposure. I stayed for another good four years. So, when my brother established his own printing press in Kaduna he asked that I come and work with him. It was George Bullet Printing Press in Tudun Nupawa. I stayed there for another three years and got married while there in 1980. After another three years, another printing press asked for my services to come and be their production manager. That was how I put up my resignation letter and went to work with the company. I also stayed there for some years and continued praying to God that I needed to start my own business. That was how in 1983 I resigned and opened my own printing press.
Bookshelf: How much did it take for you to start-off your own printing press at that time?
Agado: Actually, I started buying the materials even before then. I started by buying what we call ‘the letter press,’ because computers were not in vogue then. So I started buying the types. All in all it didn’t cost me more than N3, 000 to buy them. And the machine that I started with, which we call ‘Adana,’ it didn’t cost me more than N5, 000. So, everything didn’t cost more than N10, 000. That money I spent at that time, if converted today, it will be over N2 million.
Bookshelf: What about getting an office?
Agado: I rented a single room here in this same building and where I use now as my personal office was another person’s room next to mine. At that time we were paying N20 a month as rent. I had one staff as my secretary. Gradually, I asked my younger brother that is in the graphic department in another press to come and work with me. So, anytime I go out, I had two staff to take care of business. Eventually, we expanded and rented more rooms – from one to four, then six and then took the whole flat. My rent increased from N20 to N40, N60, N120, then N30, 000. As things became more expensive, the rent increased. My rent stopped at N630, 000 per year. As God would have it, this year I purchased the house. From one staff, we now have 35 working here.
Bookshelf: How old are you now sir?
Agado: I am 58-years-old
Bookshelf: What are the major challenges you have had over the years in the business?
Agado: There are lots of challenges. But when you believe and trust God, you will overcome them. I pay salary here, 25th or 26th of every month, but at a particular time, it would be two or three months and still we are unable to pay the staff. But we continue trusting God. At times you may pursue a job, and before you know it someone else has overtaken you. But you still have to thank God. Also, a week hardly goes by that I do not travel.
Bookshelf: What are your educational qualifications?
Agado: When I told some people that I am just a primary school leaver, they were surprised. I have a driver that drives me when I travel; there is the other that drives the staff when they are off to make a purchase. After my primary school, I wanted to go to secondary school in 1972. Then secondary school was a big deal unlike now. My mother tried to raise some money for me and I was supposed to buy the form, but when the money came, it was too late. I cried and cried but my mother encouraged me. Before long, my father arranged with a relative and I followed him to Kaduna to learn the printing business. That was how my journey into printing started. All my children today are well educated. I have even trained many that are not biologically mine.
Bookshelf: What sort of materials have you published?
Agado: I am not a traditional publisher, but simply a printer. When you have written a book and bring to me, I just print for you and that is it.
Bookshelf: Have you ever considered traditional publishing?
Agado: No. It is not that profitable. If you don’t take it on as a professional, it can be difficult. I have been helping some people who don’t have money and invest up to N200, 000 or N500, 000. But yet there are some that don’t pay me back even after they hold a book launch and make their money.
Bookshelf: What kinds of materials do you usually print?
Agado: We print calendars. Years back, four months to the end of each year used to be very busy for us because printing calendars was the major work we got to do. But the federal government under former president Olusegun Obasanjo banned the printing of calendars. We only get such jobs from local governments or politicians and so on. Before now, every ministry printed calendars. But aside calendars, we print invoices, ledger papers, text books, inspirationals – so we print for schools, churches, local governments, and banks among others. In fact, right now, majority of our work is from banks. We are presently dealing with Zenith Bank, and when we start their work, we do it day and night.
Bookshelf: What advice would you give to those aspiring to venture into this business?
Agado: One would have to put God first. Then there’s the need to be responsible. When a customer gives an advance, it should be used to start his or her work and not to be squandered on something else. Then, of course, there’s the need to deliver a customer’s work as at when due. If you get a job from the government and remain faithful in that manner, it would open more doors. I have received many awards from the federal government on punctuality.