Print personality (for the love of golf & brandberg boss story Print fashion ………………………………………………......................................…32-33

A COLOSSAL LOOK AT THE EMERGENCE A COLOSSAL LOOK AT THE EMERGENCE OF THE VARIOUS PRINTING HUBS IN NIGERIA OF THE VARIOUS PRINTING HUBS IN NIGERIA AND ITS EFFECT ON CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT AND ITS EFFECT ON CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA PRINTING INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA PRINTING INDUSTRY

The Nigeria printing industry is one of the less recognized but lucrative industries within the Nigerian economy. One of the big reason for this non-recognion is the increasing growth of SMEs(small and medium-sized enterprises) and the amount of compeon between exisng brands, the upcoming ones and the relavely new brands. This compeon has spurred the need for producers and marketers to bale for the aenon of both potenal and exisng consumers to grow their brand equity in the market.

In the face of the dwindling oil fortunes, the prinng industry is one of the industry the Nigerian government should look into, by way of providing financial capital through loans and grants. My take on this is that the commercial prinng industry is one of the largest informal sectors employing millions of youths and one of the largest employers of labors in Nigeria.

However, the quest for the colossal look to the emergence of various prinng hubs in Nigeria brings about this queson: Aside Shomolu and Mushin, Lagos that are largely recognized as the two foremost commercial prinng hubs in Nigeria, are there any other within Lagos and outside?

According to research carried out, it's of no doubt, both Shomolu and Mushin are two p o p u l a r l y r e c o g n i z e d commercial prinng hubs in Lagos , perhaps, the whole of Nigeria. While Shomolu is known to harbor clusters of commercial prinng specialists 28

than anywhere else in the country, Mushin is the home for prinng materials and consumables. Aside Shomolu and Mushin, we have other fast-growing commercial prinng hub in Ogba, Yabba and ijaiye ojokoro area, Lagos. Outside Lagos we have a popular commercial prinng hub somewhere in Mokola Ibadan ,also area in Ogun state, FCT Abuja and in Benin city, Edo state. With this, I can tell you categorically that Shomolu is the home of commercial prinng in west Africa.

The emergence of Abuja prinng hub

A prinng community has gradually evolved at Area 7 over the last few decades. The area, popularly known as UTC (United Training Company),actually derived its nickname from the history of the prinng hub. It was gathered that the chairman of the printer's associaon, Mr. Gabriel Adediji gives a detailed explanaon of the emergence of Abuja prinng hub, he said when the government built a large space with roofs and began construcng shops, the vision was for a trading spot where a day to day food items would be sold , but certain factors influenced the dominaon of the complex by printers , he said from the 1990s, the united trading company, popular in places like Ibadan and Lagos, were also in the complex but when they le, people never stopped calling the complex and indeed the whole area 'UTC' but its original name is zone 7 shopping complex.

He said further that, “the market had been exisng for long but it was not known that much unl printers came and dominated it. It began to be known as a place for printers as far back as 1998,1999, when they started opening shops here. There were some skeletal prinng being done before the me, but from 1998 it became known as a hub for printers.

Emergence of mokola ,Ibadan prinng hub

Ibadan the capital of Oyo state, generally known as the largest city in Nigeria and west Africa with Ibadan north as one of its 33 local government areas. Ibadan north local government is endowed with a very large populaon and has a lot of potenals for industrial concerns.

Mokola prinng hubs is distributed in a clustered manner over the area, as almost every building on Mokola hill has at least a prinng press in it as observed. The three most important locaon factors that necessitates the emergence of Mokola prinng hub are: accessibility, nearness to market and available of land or premises. Meanwhile, prinng industry in Mokola area is grossly faced with the problem of poor electricity supply .

It was also gathered that some specific factors were idenfied as having influence on the locaon prinng

press in Mokola area. These factors include nearness to sources of raw materials; it was gathered that majority of the printers in Mokola area obtain their raw materials from Mokola, Oke ado and Ogunpa areas of Ibadan. These locaons are all close to the locaon of p prinng industries in Mokola area. The highest number of kilometers travelled in the bid to obtain raw materials for the producon process is about(3) kilometers. The raw materials obtained include paper, ink, toner, chase, kerosene, diesel and petrol.

First innovaon hub in Abeokuta, Ogun state

Grazac technology limited, one of the leading soware companies in Ogun state has launched the first innovaon hub in Abeokuta, the state capital. 29

Creave's, entrepreneurs, strategic thinkers and tech enthusiasts converged on the located along Sam Ewang Estate road during the official launch on Friday, November 13 2021.

Chairman, ogun state prinng c o r p o ra o n , s o l a o t e s i l e highlighted the effect, impact and importance of the emergence of this hub on capacity development in the state prinng industry and Nigeria prinng industry at large, as a source of employment opportunies for the youth especially in an era where white collar jobs are gradually becoming vague.

Reportorial visit to somolu, Nigeria's biggest prinng hub

S O M O LU i n s o m o l u l o c a l government area of Lagos state is unarguably the hub of the commercial prinng in Nigeria with the thousands of commercial prinng presses both small and medium scales dong the length and breadth of this bursng business community. although her posion in Africa and indeed the world as bone of the leading enclaves of prinng business remains a subject of debate, not a few stakeholders in the Nigeria prinng industry are of the opinion t h a t s o m o l u c o m m a n d s a respectable posion in league of leading prinng communies not only i9n Africa but also in the world.

Possible effect of the emergence of various prinng hub on capacity development in Nigeria prinng industry

The concept of printers coming together to dominate a parcular area, strictly meant for printers and comprising shops where various prinng related acvies are carried out (hub),thus has a great impact and effect on resolung the failure of Nigeria prinng industry by establishing uniformity and enabling prinng industry to be relevant as other industries in Nigeria.

However, the emergence of various prinng industry both old and different newly discovered prinng hubs in Nigeria is one way or the other prevenng one of the major short-comings that is making the prinng industry to be very irrelevant in Nigeria which is that the praconers failed to come together as a unified associaon. All we have are disjointed associaon scaered all over have failed to the country. we know that building a strong instuon is the panacea to virile industry.

An aempt to do this was the struggle to have a chaered body which came to an existence in 2007. This instuon was bedeviled by internal crisis from the onset orchestrated by 'NIGERIAN FACTOR' that never wanted the industry to be regulated. The instute aer 15years of existence cannot be called an instute but mere associaon been managed through whims and caprices of s e l e c te d a n d a d va nta ge d entrepreneurs who are engaged in prinng business but most of t h e m a r e f r o m d i ff e r e n t professions without further trainings in prinng technology and management. This simple factor is the cause of premature winding of prinng establishment