Printing industry backbone of globaleducation growth, says Olowodola
The printing Industry, which commanded almost $180 billion globally in 2025 alone, has become a backbone of education growth around the world, Executive Director, Operations and Planning, Goshen Print Media
- By Bola Olajuwon
The printing Industry, which commanded almost $180 billion globally in 2025 alone, has become a backbone of education growth around the world, Executive Director, Operations and Planning, Goshen Print Media Limited, Mr. Layi Olowodola, has said.
According to Olowodola while speaking recently in Lagos, printed books, in both digital and hard copies, have become indispensable in knowledge curation, perpetuation and transmission in both formal and informal education sectors and libraries serving both as sources of employment and revenue sources to the government.
“The potential of the impact to the printing industry in Nigeria is limitless if explored. It’s a means of industrialisation- from paper and Ink production, think of the employment capacity. That is job creation by itself. Now visualise the effect with the growth of the national GDP. The general idea is, where there is a way, we must find the will. All it takes are far reaching policies geared towards this development. A win for the government in so many ramifications.
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“Mind you, we are talking of an industry that is projected to grow to about $300 billion or more by 2035. This is just in the digital printing space alone, not adding paper production and general printing and packaging. It is a choice worth every dime or kobo,” he said.
The industry, including the established university presses, which is projected to hit half or more than a trillion dollars in a couple of years from now, has further been driven by the inclusion of the digital aspect of printing, he said.
Olowodola said: “From research analysis, the greater part of the printing and the packaging industry is expected to grow by almost $70 billion in a few years from now.”
He added that this means that there was a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of almost 55 per cent and an 11 per cent growth rate respectively. “The major driving forces for these projections are the development in the AI digital print market; the transformation of the market into a more personalised driven market with efficient short run capacity to meet immediate demands, not forgetting that sustainability, and improved security innovations are effectively creating better printing environments loaded with growth potential as well.”
According to him, the Nigerian printing industry has endured a lot of constraints in the past and even now.
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“We have had to grapple with varying degrees of challenges from technology, different economic and policy dynamics; even so much so the very institution that should regulate effective growth. The potential for growth is very present if I may say, but where is the will and the wherewithal.
“I believe the industry should start to forge a viable partnership with sister companies with better or more advanced technological capacities in printing so the widening gap will close and growth can be induced. As I have pointed out earlier in the CAGR of the printing industry globally, a great chunk of this can be brought closer home to Nigeria, a $1 or $2 billion inflow from the printing industry into the Nigerian economy is no mean feat, and the overall effect would be felt almost immediately.”
He lamented that the industry in Nigeria faces an annual loss of N250 billion to foreign printing of books and all other sundry printing materials and this is not healthy at all for a supposed growing industry. “Why does it suffer this loss? There is a greater dependence on importation of raw materials, which is about 85%, largely paper and Ink. The draining effect on the local capacity to compete is not small, if we consider the duties lost on these materials from the exchange of currencies. Not to mention any. Meanwhile these imported books don’t attract any tariff whatsoever. A gross disadvantage for the local printers.”
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Olowodola recalled how leading practitioners of the industry have urged the Nigerian government in the past to help create an enabling environment for its growth and development with so many suggestions like the investment in local paper production, tariff adjustment regimes, creating policies to favour local production against foreign ones and increasing the visibility of the printing industry to stakeholders, interested investors, and opening up more stem related courses in the printing industry.
“The impact of Artificial Intelligence has started to be noticed in all areas of human endeavour. A lot of organisations worldwide have started to downsize. The effect of that is yet to be determined, but I am sure we all know what that means for individuals across the broader spectrum of society. Now, how has it impacted the printing industry? Of course, in so many ways, and I will just highlight a few.
“Off the bat, AI has increased the capacity to monitor print runs on the go to reduce waste and be able to control the consistency of the production. This is possible because it can control ink density as well as calibration with the image resolution for a better output. All on the go. Another aspect where AI efficiency is notable is its ability to measure consumer needs and preference to optimise production; what I call predictive analysis based on data.”
