The Minister of Education Malam Adamu Adamu has praised efforts of the Nigerian Book Fair Trust (NBFT) at making more eBooks available in Nigeria. He said this during the opening of the 7th Book Fair organized by the Nigerian Book Fair Trust (NBFT), Northern Zone in Kano.
The fair focused on simulating books provision and distribution and on making books, especially e-books readily available to the general public.
Adamu said because in the 21st century, the Information and Communications Technologies have changed the way things are done, Nigerians should pay close attention to the eBooks.
He said, all over the world, e-Books are changing how people read. He assured that the concern that eBooks will see the extinction of the physical books is unfounded but that prints and eBooks will continue to complement each another in Nigeria.
“The eBook is definitely here to stay and I therefore call on the Book Trade Sector to examine the eBook, embrace it, be a part of it, own it and drive its future direction. The ebook is yet another golden opportunity for Nigeria to showcase best practice and leadership in Africa,” the minister said.
The minister reiterated that the federal government was committed to attending to infrastructural issues such as training, bandwidth and establishing regulations on information service provision, so that e-books would have full impact on Nigerians. He also noted that plans are underway to introduce reading clinics in schools to promote reading in Nigeria.
He pointed that the Federal Government was encouraging the establishment of book clubs in schools. In his words, “we also plan to introduce more sustainable models to reading promotion through the establishment of reading clinics in schools in order to build the capacity of teachers and librarians to teach students more effective reading and comprehension skills.”
