With television, mobile phones, tablets and the Internet taking almost all of our time these days, reading a book now seems old school.
Little wonder the Nigerian Publishers’ Association (NPA) has lamented about the decline in the reading culture in Nigeria, saying that, “it is unfortunate that Nigerians no longer value reading”.
There’s even a saying that if you want to hide anything from a Nigerian, put it inside a book.
It is so bad that President Jonathan wants to ’Bring Back The Book’, an initiative aimed at promoting a reading culture in Nigeria through a citizens framework and interactive platform.
Interestingly, one of Nigeria’s leading e-commerce companies, Konga is placing a big bet on the country’s reading culture and believes that we’re witnessing another era in knowledge acquisition, entertainment and online shopping in Nigeria.
“Contrary to the popular saying that ‘Nigerians don’t like to read’, data has shown us that Nigerians are actually thirsty for knowledge and entertainment that can be found in books, our book category is a category that is well visited and we foresee a great increase in this trend,” the company’s Public Relations Manager, Ifeanyi Abraham told Techloy in an email interview.
The online retailer announced this week that it has increased its book catalogue to over 100,000 books, dwarfing its rival, Jumia’s catalogue of about 20,000 books, and making it the largest library of books online in West Africa. The company also revealed to Techloy that some of the titles that have become top sellers through its site are Chinua Achebe’s “There Was A Country”, Chimamanda Adichie’s “Americanah” and the Steve Jobs Exclusive Biography (Hardback) by Walter Isaacson.
Whether Konga is foreseeing a future trend in book reading amongst Nigerians based on its available data or is merely responding to a sudden interest in buying and reading books again, the launch of this category has already seen a lot of orders of new books.
“We have reacted to a sustained interest in buying and reading of books which to us is starting a trend in book reading,” Abraham added.
Konga launched a year ago with a focus on daily needs, groceries and beauty products, but has since expanded its product catalogue to include clothing and accessories, computer and electronics, mobile phones and gadgets and more.
With this latest huge addition to its product catalogue and having introduced its pay on delivery option to ten new cities in Nigeria including Benin, Uyo, Calabar, Kano, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Warri, Enugu, Yola, and Onitsha, the online retailer’s massive local expansion plans seems to be taking root across Nigeria.
Still, it is yet to be seen whether or not Konga’s bold move would improve Nigeria’s reading culture.
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