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I am an author and live in Africa. I have a book which is
not just on paperback but kindle (electronic) format as well and is on sale,
online, at Jeff Bezos Amazon.com. The irony is that I don’t have a kindle or
any other e-book reader my self. I had the audacity to launch this book online despite
knowing that with the exception of a few countries, the e-book retailers:
Amazon, Lulu, Barnes and Noble, Apple … don’t sell to Africa. The outcome is that my book has sold just about
half a dozen copies in three years with the exception of free downloads.
I think that the primary reason why my book failed to sell
satisfactorily is the fact that even though the book was inspired by challenges
in Africa which the book aims to address,
it was self-published on Amazon.com, a book retailer that hasn’t entered
Africa which the exception of south Africa and perhaps two other nations of the
continent.
Information and Communication Technology, ICT, became
relevant in view of the progress it has brought over what we had prior to its
arrival. The information it brings in the area of education and elsewhere is of
high quality, cheap and affordable. ICT also brings equality in education since
the best teachers now make their resourcefulness available to all people around
the world via multimedia devices of the ICT. Along that line, Africa can use
the opportunity to close the educational gap between it and the developed
world. Thus when Amazon and its sister online retailers shut its doors to the continent,
they are depriving the continent of the nourishment that is imperative for the
growth and development of Africa’s education and, by extrapolation, its general
well-being.
It is okay to find financial prosperity in business but also
necessary to do good to humanity as we do that. If Amazon’s continued
investment and expansion of its activities were to be based solely on financial
considerations, then it will never look out for areas of further expansion;
Jeff has enough for a dozen generations of his descendants. Thus the sole spur
for continued research and the investments thereof, is to serve humanity. Along
that line, it could be said that a huge opening for online retailers to serve
mankind is beckoning in Africa.
Nigeria by the good value of its human population and
economic strength is the gateway to Africa. In Nigeria, there are hundreds of
tertiary institutions that include universities, polytechnics, colleges of
education and other tertiary institutions with hundreds of thousands of
students waiting to buy the kindle reader should it become available for use in
the country. Nigeria, a nation of ego architects, will ensure that the kindle
reader is in every home, even homes where it will not be put to use. This will
however bring about the proliferation of the e-book to the good of the nation.
The chain of beneficiaries will be endless: Authors and would-be authors;
education; marketers; job seekers, governments that would experience jumps in their
quest for growth and mankind will be served adequately, not just in Nigeria but
across the continent of 1.033 billion people ( World Population Review, 2013).
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