Publishers fear 20% firms may fold by 2022

The Ghana Books Publishing Association (GBPA) has hinted that about 20% of their members would be out of business come next year, 2022.

President of the Association, Asare Konadu Yamoah, has linked this looming danger to the expensive nature of the  publication business as well as the losses incurred by members at the decision by the Ghana Education Service to put a hold on implementing a new curriculum.

Speaking on the Wednesday edition of Angel FM’s Anopa Bofo Morning Show, the president stated that “I can tell you that by next year, 20% of our businesses would collapse, most of our [publishing] companies can’t function again”.

He explained that one fact that both government and people tend to lose sight of when it comes to publishing is the expensive nature of the business which arises from the processing.

“Publishing work is capital intensive… An editor can charge you GHS10,000 just for editorial work. Every publisher by law also pays royalties to authors of books just as an architect is entitled to royalties for their designs…All these must be factored into the pricing of books which most members of the public may complain about”.

Mr. Asare Konadu Yamoah further spoke about the losses that members of the association had to incur as a result of government’s initiative to introduce a new school curriculum.

According to him, most of the publishers are currently disposing off text books since new ones have been produced to suit the new syllabus.

“We appealed to NACCA to gradually phase out the old books so we can still make sales out of them but that proposition was rejected. Letters were sent to schools not to buy the text books”.

He noted that due to lack of space, they are currently emptying their warehouses and the stocks of books, which would have been sold for next academic year, are either destroyed or sent to the mills to be used for toilet rolls.

The President for the Publishers Association noted that though not all publishing houses have submitted records of their losses, the few who have made their debts known amounts to GHS230 million.