Publishers, 'cross bearers' of Cameroon

“With the failure on the part of the Government coupled with no increase in prices of books, we cannot make any profit,” Samuel Alemji Atabong; President General of the Cameroonian Publishers Syndicate asserted.

According to Atabong, the publishers sector is greatly disappointed with the fact that there is an increase in prices of various commodities in different sectors of the country, except for the publishing sector. “This is unfair,” he said.

Following their distribution process beginning with printing houses, warehouses, divisions; he elaborated on the fact that transport fare around the country has increased by 30 to 40 percent and this affects the publishing sector financially.

“Division means fuel” Samuel says; they have different branches of their publishing house in various regions and need to transport goods from the main house to varying branches, sale points as well as distribute textbooks in schools.

Even though the Minister of Trade and Commerce stated that this price application was in collaboration with the publishers in the country, it is worth mentioning that the aforementioned publishers were not at all consulted on this issue.

Thus signifying that as a support arm of the Ministry of Trade and Commerce, they receive no support from the Government though they pay taxes every month. “Publishers cannot become 'cross bearers' of this country,” Samuel alleged.

The matter is very sad, taking into consideration the fact that, books have been withheld at the port; blocked following their financial state after having a 40percent of expenditure on the distribution of textbooks, unlike various countries like Ghana who receives aid from their Government.

“In as much as foodstuffs have an impact on the population (lack of food equals hunger, strikes), so does the lack of books which are a necessity to educate a greater population, especially the youth,” narrated Samuel.

As a sign of optimism, the publishers syndicate has met with the Exco and are planning on a meeting with the Minister of Trade and Commerce with the hope of altering; influencing this decision already put in place.

In an interview with Verine Abala; branch manager Press-book Buea, he explained that the idea of changing and increasing the cost of textbooks is not a good one and since the Government has decided to let the prices be, it’s a good innovation to the parents. “If the prices of textbooks increase, it would affect us negatively as parents”.

He also backed up the point with an explanation that; the books supplied by the same authors are mostly produced and printed out of the country at a very low cost. Thus, they see no need in increasing the prices of textbooks.

Otherwise, Verine mentioned that stationary items such as pens, for example, Schneider pens increased from FCFA150 to FCFA200; school bags from FCFA 1,500 to FCFA 2,500, FCFA 3,500, FCFA 5,500 and more.

He also stated that, at first they used to do door to door delivery, but with the increase in fuel prices which has led to the increase in transportation cost, they cannot use their previous distribution processes.