Executive watch ………………….................................................……………………7&8 Print events (Technology Global's meet, drink and demo open house & CIPPON nationwide registration

CIPPON NATIONWIDE PRINTERS REGISTRATION SET TO ERADICATE QUACKS FROM PRINTING PROFESSION

The Chartered Instute of Professional Printers of Nigeria (CIPPON) recently co m m e n c e d t h e n a o nw i d e enumeraon and registraon exercise in the bid to eradicate nonprofessional printers from the Nigeria prinng sector and also to have stascs praconers in the s e c t o r f o r t h e g r o w t h a n d development of the instute.

Recently, CIPPON enumeraon team was at the prinng hub in Ogba Lagos State. It was gathered that the naonwide registraon started in Abuja which is now moved to Lagos as the commercial city of the country, the registraon movement was slated for each prinng hub in Lagos per day and the city has the widest and biggest prinng hub in Nigeria (Shomolu).

According to one of our respondents during the interview session with praconers at the enumeraon sites, he said that earlier before the registraon program commenced, outdoor publicity was executed all around Ogba prinng hub, from Yaya Abatan bus stop to Ogba juncon creang awareness about the ongoing printer's registraon at Ogba juncon in other to make the registraon process easier.

Our correspondence was able to meet and interview some professional printers at the event. The Vice Chairman of the Associaon of Prinng Praconers of Nigeria, Mr. Prince Igwe, said: “CIPPON registraon is a federal thing and not under state operaon and government, so we are moving to the federal level now, no one can tell where you can be called to come and negoate for work, having a CIPPON cerficate of membership is going to be another advantage of geng the job. At mes I asked myself what is the essence of me being a printer aer I have suffered many years going to school, graduated, and later end up as a printer and to the fact that printer is now an all-comers profession that novice can just enter the business without any form of restricon and that's why I don't respond to people coming to my shop to find out how to do this and that instead of referring the customers to the professional printers, so it's seriously affecng us today.

For instance; if you're not a licensed pharmacist you can't open a shop and if you do they'll seal it up. If the CIPPON can take that measure and have professional printers at least I will be proud of being a printer and anyone that want to work will be directed to the core professionals”. I have not really observed the new CIPPON execuves but the lile we have seen and heard recently; I can say they are bringing change to the industry and they're doing beer than the previous execuves”. Igwe said

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK,

AFRICAN CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AREA SECRETARIAT, SIGN $11 MILLION INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT GRANT AGREEMENT

The African Development B a n k G ro u p a n d t h e Secretariat of the African Connental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) have signed a Protocol of Agreement for an $11.24 million support package to enhance the S e c r e t a r i a t ' s e ff e c v e implementaon.

The signing took place on 25 July 2022, on the margins of the ninth meeng of the AfCFTA Council of Ministers responsible for trade, held in Accra, Ghana.

The AfCFTA Secretariat, currently in phase II of its implementaon phase, will benefit from this support package, which aims to boost sustainable intra-Africa trade and to augment the number of parcipang African member states. The funds are intended to move the African trade integraon agenda forward.

The grant, approved in July by the Board of Directors of the African Development Fund, will focus on t h re e a re a s : i n s t u o n a l strengthening of the AfCFTA Secretariat; private sector support to implement the AfCFTA, and support of climate-resilient regional and connental value chains to boost intra-Africa trade.

In addion, studies and iniaves will be undertaken to idenfy new b u s i n e s s a n d e c o n o m i c opportunies for women, to help develop the AfCFTA Women and Youth in Trade Protocol, and to support capacity building and targeted business skills for women. H.E. Wamkele Mene, SecretaryGeneral of the AfCFTA Secretariat signed the agreement on behalf of his organizaon, while African Development Group Bank Vice P r e s i d e n t f o r R e g i o n a l Development, Integraon and Business Delivery, Yacine Fal, signed on behalf of Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, p r e s i d e n t o f t h e A f r i c a n Development Bank Group.

Wamkele Mene said: “We welcome the support of the Bank as this is a clear indicaon of our strategic partnership that will strengthen the capacity of the Secretariat and facilitate the start of commercially meaningful trade under the AfCFTA preferences. The COVID-19 pandemic and the current geopolical tensions have created an ethos of urgent collecve acon for the implementaon of the AfCFTA. We all have a shared responsibility to change the desnies of all Africans as we achieve the laudable objecve of the AfCFTA. ”

“The African Development Bank is proud of the strong partnership with the AfCFTA Secretariat and confident that this instuonal support will help support our respecve mandates to spur greater connental trade and economic transformaon, in line with Agenda 2063's vision of the Africa we want,” Fal said. “Africa's hope for building back strong and beer lies with the successful implementaon of the AfCTA. ”

AFKAR PRINTING AND PUBLISHING BOSS AFKAR PRINTING AND PUBLISHING BOSS SHARES COMPANY'S SUCCESS STORYSHARES COMPANY'S SUCCESS STORY

ne of the Great Britain Os c h o l a rs , W i n sto n Churchill, in his quote: “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to connue that counts. This affinity can best describe the success story told by the Managing Director of Aar Prinng and publishing company Limited, Dr. Mrs. Adesola Falaiye during an interview session at her office. Dr. Adesola warmly took us through the memory lane of how the company started with a quality for service delivery as their company's driving force. “Aar is an internaonal company based in Nigeria. The idea for seng up AFKAR is to give people the quality with standard technology that they could get in other advanced countries of the world. When you ask people why they print their jobs overseas? Their response are usually that they cannot find that quality they want in Nigeria. Aar came in to fill that gap and so far, we have maintained that culture and standard”. In addion, she added that, the idea was to have an expatriate at the helm of the company's affairs and that standard we have maintained ll date. Aar was a subsidiary of Vintage Press when w e sta r te d a n d w h e n w e rebranded to Aar itself with a Brish expatriate Alan Ballard, supported myself with other key management staff. I think they felt we could sll uphold the standard, the tradion, and the philosophy of the company. I want to believe that I represent the i n t e r n a o n a l b r a n d , t h e expatriate brand, and what we are looking for in an expatriate brand by God's grace they found it in us and the tradion connues. She stated “I am glad to inform you that the latest technology is what we will promote. We are planning to purchase another new Heidelberg equipment. The first machine that we brought here, we are shipping it to other places whilst we bring in a new machine for finishing. Aar is a one-stop shop. We try to give our clients everything they want we don't take jobs outside for people to help us complete it. We try to be self-sufficient” . Dr. Falaiye stated She went ahead to state that: “A a r i s b l e s s e d w i t h t h e workforce, we have the bigger workforce, yes! There will always be Judas out of the twelve but I promise you we fish them out and they either refurbish, reconstruct them or they just go out of the way. Because the Aar culture has a contaminang nature that when you are here, you just abide in that culture, you are eager, you are happily producing great things, things that people will say wow! Things happen in Nigeria and Aar is a representaon of the fact that Nigeria has what it takes to compete globally. We do a lot with training because God has endowed us with knowledge and intellect in Aar, and somemes when we have to pay for training, we do but we don't train blindly, we train to specificaon, we don't employ blindly, we employ to specificaon, so if my cousin is looking for a job and he wants me to help I will say, I will employ him where he can fit into that vacancy, 'it's round peg in a round hole' because our reputaon maers.