a brief history of printing in nigeria

8/13/2019 A Brief History of Printing in Nigeria

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Abdulrasheed AfolabiDepartment of Printing Technology

Yaba College of Technology

[email protected]

Published in Print ing News Magazine,

Vol 21, No: 100. Jan/Feb. 2013

ISSN: 1117-6105

Published in Printing ews Magazine

Vol 21 No: 100. Jan/Feb. 2013

ISSN: 1117-6105

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF PRINTING IN NIGERIA

We can chart our fut ure clearly andwisely only when we know t he pathwhich has led to t he present

- Adlai Stevenson

The Evolution of Printing in Nigeriat hThe 19 century marked thebeginning of the evolution of printingin Nigeria. Precisely in 1846, twomissionaries Hope Waddel, with thehelp of his assistant Samuel Edgerly,established the first printing press atCalabar, South Eastern Nigeria. TheHope Waddel Press, as the press waslater named, was used for the massproduction of religious tracts andbooklets. The Missionary Rev. HenryTownsend raised the bar when heestablished another press in theWestern part of the country in 1854.He also started a school of printingwhere he trained pupils at Abeokuta.Five years later, Townsend startedIwe Irohin , the first newspaper inNigeria. Unfortunately, the MissionPrinting Press established byTownsend folded up in 1867 due tothe cultural and political crisis that

erupted betweenthe Egba peopleand the European

1settlers.

P r i o r t o t h ecollapse of Townsend's printingpress, what can be regarded as anevolving printing industry hadalready taken root. This evolutioncan be attributed to a number offactors. First, the proliferation ofmissionary activities in Nigeriaresulted in the setting up of presseswhich served as a means ofpublicizing and propagating the

different faiths. As a matter of fact,many of the missionaries came withtheir printing presses. Second, theevolving and flourishing newspaperindustry at the time also stimulatedthe establishment of printingpresses. Worthy of mention are theprinting presses set up in 1862 byRobert Cambell, and the CaxtonPrinting Press established in 1875 by

Richard Blaize. As records indicate,by the end of the 1880s not less thanfive printing presses had been

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established in Lagos. The third factoris the quest for high quality printing.This became the driving force behindthe publishers' investment inefficient printing equipment. Thus,by 1910 modern and more efficientprinting presses were established inLagos. This made it possible fornewspapers (the major markets forprinting presses.) to avail themselves

3of a wide range of services.

The Colonial Government's shapingof the Fledgling Printing IndustryAside from the missionaries and thenewspaper publishers, another vitalinfluence on the fledging printingindustry in Nigeria at the early periodwas the colonial government. Thefirst Government Printing House wasestablished at Broad Street, Lagos in1914. I t provided stat ionerymaterials to the Government. During


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Afolabi (2008) in his analysis of theeffect of technology on the printmedia industry in Nigeria notes thattechnological changes in the industryhave been spurred by print buyers'demand for high quality colourreproduction, shorter print runs and

10shrinking production cycle times. Inaddition to these factors, there alsocomes to play printers' search forways to decrease production cost,increase efficiency and enhancecustomer satisfaction. In essence, itcan be said that the Nigerian printingindustry, in tune with global practice,is not behind in adopting newtechnologies with a view to attaininghigh levels of competitiveness.

Colour separation started in Nigeriawith the use of analogue separation.Aw o g a ( n . d ) r e c o r d s t h a tChronograph Limited located thenaround Tafawa Balewa Square inLagos started experimenting withcommercial colour separationaround 1969-1970. Another name

associated with pioneering colourseparation in Nigeria in the late

11sixties is Academy Press in Lagos.Digital colour separation actuallycommenced in Nigeria during the1990's when print investors saw theneed and viabi l i ty of colourseparation in the print productionprocess. By mid 1990's a number ofcolour separation outfits such as

Vicoda Repro, Lithotec, Transcan,Hywill Graphics, MacGrafix, Clearimpression etc were on ground toprovide the much-expected digitalcolour separation needs for the

12printing industry.

C o m p u t e r t o p l a t e s y s t e mcompletely phase out the need forfilms

In this technology, the image createdin a Desktop Publishing (DTP)application is output directly to a

printing plate. Kipphan (2001) notesthat since several intermediate film-handling stages in the production ofthe printing plates are dispensedwith, it has become easier to meetthe quality requirements of print

13 jobs. Punch Newspapers made thepioneer effort of introducing the useof CTP (computer-to-plate) innewspaper production in Nigeria in2003. Little wonder then that thenewspaper ranks high in terms ofrevenue from print advertisement.The print output of the newspaper issuperlatively high and in the words ofA z u b u i k e I s h i e k w e n e t h eintroduction of the use of CTP

(computer-to-plate) and the use ofdigital cameras by reporters hashelped to improve speed, quality and

14efficiency,"

Direct Image (DI) technology, thetechnology that prints directly fromthe computer to the printing press,was introduced in Nigeria in 2001.Planet press in Lagos pioneered the

cutting edge technology. Prior to this,high quality printing was doneabroad. Since the emergence of DI in2001, such high quality printing isnow done in Nigeria. At present,there are several DI centers dottingthe landscape of Nigeria.

The Rise of the Digital press inNigeria

A digital press does not use plates orstatic image carriers, so each printedpiece can be completely different

15from the last. The authors of thebook Designer's Prepress Companion ,Berlin, Kim and Talcott (2002) explainthat digital printing is an integralprocess for both on-demand andvariable-data printing. They explainthat with digital printing, each

impression can be different becauseit does not use image plates or staticimage carriers; the image is created

on the images carrier for each16impression. This feature of the

digital press makes it a good tool forp e r s o n a l i z a t i o n o f p r i n tcommunication products. In a similarvein, Clem J. and Link P. (2005) explainthat since the printed productcreated by the digital press requiresless setup for production thantraditional printing methods, it istypically more economical (less costper impression) for use in short-run

17printing situations . However,digital printing may not be the mosteconomic solution to jobs of largevolumes.

The saying technology drivesbusiness and business drivestechnology holds true with thedevelopment of the digital press inthe print communications industry.The need for personalization, which ist h e h a l l m a r k o f d i r e c t - m a i ladvertising, provides an impetus forthe deployment of digital presses.Direct-mails like sales letters,

brochures, catalogs etc are efficient,effective and economical media forsales and business promotion. Theseprint products can be personalized foreach recipient since each can containdifferent names, addresses, colours,or any other information that isprogrammed from the database.

The increasing growth of the direct

marketing industry in Nigeria hasprovided a market for digital pressesw h i c h o f f i c e e q u i p m e n tmanufacturers like Xerox, OKI printsolutions, Konika Minolta, HewlettPackard, etc are tapping into. There isno doubt that the further growth ofthe direct marketing industry willbring about a corresponding increasemarket for digital presses. Aside the

need for personalization, theincreasing demand for short run jobsp r e s e n t s m o r e m a r k e t s f o r


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manufacturers and marketers ofdigital presses.

Conclusion and RecommendationsFrom the early period in 1846 to thepresent, printing in Nigeria hasdeveloped appreciably well inresponse to various technologicaldevelopments and changing marketneeds. Nonetheless, the printingindustry is yet to reach the promiseland. To move the industry a notchhigher than the present level, thefollowing are suggested:A Change of Business M odel: thetraditional printing companies haveto reassess their product lines andcontinually ask themselves pertinentquestions: What new computer-based product will sell in today'smarket? How much should beinvested? Who are the audiencesand how can they be reached? Theanswers to these questions willdetermine the winners and losers inthe new information environment.Specifically, Nigerian printers must

s t a r t t o v i e w a n d p o s i t i o nthemselves as print communicationproviders ra ther than pr in tcommodity manufacturers. In otherwords, Nigerian printers mustcon t inuous ly r ede f ine t he i rbusinesses in order to prosper in thefuture. In very practical terms, itmeans print media operators mustbe more innovative and take a

broader view of their business.Adequate Funding: Access to loansfor investments by printers should befacilitated by the governmentthrough financial agencies.Training and Re-trai ning: constantupdating of knowledge and skills isvital. The Chartered Institute ofProfessional Printers in Nigeria(CIPPON) has a huge role to play inputting in place training programs

for her members. The training ofprinters is a crucial role that shouldnot be left to educational institutionsand print organizations. Beside,there is an urgent need for theincorporation of Printing Technologyinto the programme offerings ofUniversities of Technology in Nigeria.These institutions will thus be able toprovide the much-needed high-levelmanagerial hands for the print mediaindustry.

On a final note, a high incomeindustry like the printing industryshould not be left to haphazarddevelopment; the task of takingNigeria's printing industry to a worldclass level is a duty for all.

Notes1. Daramola, Ifedayo. (2006). History

and development of mass media inNigeria . Lagos: Rothan Press Ltd.P.11.

2. Ibid, p. 113. Echeruo, M (1976). History of the

Nigerian press. In The Story of theDaily Times 1926-1976 . Lagos:Daily Times of Nigeria Ltd. P.7.

4. Federal Government Press ofNigeria records.

5. Echeruo, p. 7- 86. The Story of the Daily Times 1926-

1976 . Lagos: Daily Times of Nigeria

Ltd. P.137. Ibid, p. 348. Ibid, p.359. Nigeria Communications Week,

January 11, 2010.10. Afolabi, A. (2008). ICT: Driving the

print media industry in Nigeria.Technology Times .11. Awoga, A. (n.d). Practical

Computer and Digital Colour

Separat ion . Lagos: Wal-Lab

Publishing Company, p. 1-212. Printers Digest , March 200513. Kipphan, H. (2001). Handbook of

print media: Technologies and production methods . Berlin:Springer. P. 593.

14. (Www.afrol.com)15. Digital printing; NAPL, p. 9.16. Berlin, J., Kim C, and Talcott, J.

(2004) Designer ' s P repressCompanion. New Jersey: NationalAssociation for printing Leadershipp. 166

17. Clem J. and Link P. (2005) Prepressfor Digital printing: An Introductionto prepress methods for the digitalage . Un i t ed S t a t e s : Xe rox

Corporation, p. viii

a brief history of printing in nigeria

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