Printers in Rivers State are lamenting lack of patronage by government and multinational companies.
Spokesperson of the National Printers Association, Rivers Chapter, Mr Chinedu Okoya, who spoke with The Tide, in Port Harcourt at the weekend, complained that printing business in the state was experiencing a lull due to poor patronage.
Okoya explained that aside from the high cost of printing materials and equipment, printers were not enjoying patronage from government and multinationals, noting that their printing jobs were usually taken abroad, thereby rendering the local industry redundant.
Okoya also observed that industrial policies in the country do not encourage printers especially in the purchase of consumables, which he said, accounted for high cost of printing in the country.
According to him, “the unfavourable policies of government make printing overseas cheaper, hence rendering the local printing industry stagnated”.
He said further that, “one major problem of the printing industry in the country also has to do with lack of implementation of favourable policies”.
He said that there was a lot of potentials in the printing industry, adding “if only government would review some of their policies to give importers of printing materials and equipment a soft landing and also ensure that government printing contractors do the jobs in the country and not abroad to enrich those countries”.
Okoya, however, charged operators of the printing industry on quality and error free printing so as to attract better patronage.

Tonye Nria-Dappa