In recent times, the complex Nigerian labour market has seen a decline in production and processing, as well as a significant depopulation in major sectors with the highest, imputes, causing the economy to fluctuate and affecting social activities and revenue generation in both the public and private sectors.
Like many other sectors, in digital services, the printing press or printing services are one major or highest employer of labour which has contributed to the country’s GDP growth in no small measure.
However, according to a claim by the Nigerian Printers Association, no fewer than 20,000 Nigerian graduates are gainfully employed through printing services and are positively alleviating labour market pressures.
While according to data from indexmundi.com, the country’s labour force totalled about 50 million individuals in 2020, the majority of whom were fully employed (35.6%), while approximately 79.87% of the country’s citizens were self-employed in 2019.
However, in the effort to sustain the economic fortune created by the printing press, the federal government drew up an elaborate plan and established paper and pulp-making companies in the country to make the cost of materials relatively cheaper, but the effort has amounted to little because the companies could not live up to expectations.
The global economy is in epilepsy, especially after the COVID-19 experience. The effect was expected to shake the globe in many ways, and that is justifiable. What hitherto costs little to obtain now costs double or triple the previous cost.
A printer in Kaduna named Christopher Magayaki claims that the cost of printing supplies, particularly paper, is constantly going up. For example, the price you pay for a ream of paper in the morning may not be the same price in the afternoon, which benefits printing supply marketers at the expense of their clients.
Magayaki further laments that he went to the warehouse and made an inquiry about the price of A4 paper in the morning only to return a few hours to find out that the price has gone up.
We can all attribute that to some justifiable factors, which include the devaluation of our Naira against the mighty dollar. One might wonder why the cost of printing materials from machinery to other utilities continues to rise on every blessed day.
One has to diversify his way of earning a living apart from this printing work, for obviously, the printers are working for the material sellers, he continued.
The country is in this sorry state of economic decadence not only entirely due to the poor fiscal policy of the government but simply because of our lack of compassion towards one another. The association of printers has the daunting task of ensuring that the price of materials is regulated by the vendors in accordance with how the global market operates. He added
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