Reasons for scarcity of textbooks revealed

After observing that textbooks are scarce on the market, especially during this back-to-school period, after observing that parents and guardians cannot find the textbooks for their children, The Post approached Samuel Alemnji Atabong, President of Cameroon Book Publishers Syndicate, for an explanation.

According to Alemnji Atabong who is also acting General Manager of ANUCAM Educational Books Plc, the ship carrying containers of the textbooks printed abroad has not been able to dock at the Douala Seaport for one and a half month, due to the fact there are only two cranes operating there.

Asked why they had to wait until the back-to-school period; Alemni explained: “Publishing is a business that has its peak period - August to November each year. Preparations for this short period always begin in January, with marketing and promotion and the editorial department does the reviews and updates.

He said the 2014 book season has come with a lot of difficulties on the part of the publishers. According to him, in spite of the general problems and difficulties that affect publishers, individual publishers also have problems and difficulties which could be classified, at the same time, as common problems of publishers.

“I am particularly discomfited by the situation of this year because ANUCAM started preparing for this book season in time, especially for books that are printed out of Cameroon, and placed orders to the printers as early as March 2014 and our containers were expected at the Douala Seaport latest July 21.

It is unfortunate that these containers came and loitered at the port for three weeks, during which period the ship could not dock. And the next alternative on the part of the shipping line was to carry the containers to Cotonou in Benin Republic and they stayed there for another three weeks or more.

“As we speak, the containers have been brought back from Cotonou and are still loitering in Cameroon territorial waters and still negotiating to dock. This is the reason why there is scarcity in school textbooks all over the national territory,” Alemnji continued.

“The second very challenging and disturbing issue is the general increase in prices. Even basic stationery in all bookshops has experienced an increase in price. Transportation cost, alongside the increase in price of fuel, directly affects publishers. Yet the Minister of Trade has rejected all the proposals made by publishers for a little increase in the price of textbooks,” he further explained.

“When we talk of transportation, we are looking at distribution costs. And, in normal publishing alone, distribution takes about 49.6 percent. And with this latest increase in prices, distribution alone, will not take less than 45 percent,” he lamented.

Asked why he thinks the Government has not considered publishers’ plea, Alemni stated: “I think this is an opportunity for me to draw the attention of the Cameroon Government and the Cameroonian public in general to the basic facts about publishing, one of which is that; publishing should not be seen as a business like any other, because the profit margin is too small to sponsor the activities of a publishing house.

That is why, in all the other countries of the world, governments subsidise publishing because they know it is for developmental services; that is, for education of our children,” he stated.

Meantime, reports reaching The Post say that the Douala Seaport has only two cranes to load and offload containers and ships are said to stay at the port for months waiting to be offloaded or loaded. Some companies have even stopped sending their ships to Cameroon due to that deficiency.

However, Alemnji expressed hopes by holding that: “In spite of the difficulties, in spite of the odds, we are doing everything possible within our own powers to ensure the availability of textbooks to our children, because we know the importance of those books to our children.”

He further states: “Our interest is not only the little profit that we make; our interest is to contribute in educating young and talented Cameroonians by providing textbooks and we hope that the young Cameroonians will make the difference in future. In fact, we are building the Cameroon of tomorrow.”