‘Learn Africa is sound, would continue to raise bar in book publishing, marketing’

Learn Africa plc recently held a press conference where Segun Oladipo, managing director/chief executive, briefed journalists on the achievements the company has made in the last two years, BusinessDay was there. Excerpts:

Tell us about Learn Africa

As you might be aware, Learn Africa plc is an education solutions business with a history spanning over 50 years. The company was established in 1961 as Longman Nigeria – a book publishing concern wholly owned by Longman Group UK Limited, now Pearson Education. On July 23, 1996, the shares of Longman Nigeria plc were listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. In 2008, the company became a subsidiary of Pearson plc following the latter’s increase in its shareholding from 29 percent to 51 percent. In the first quarter of 2012, the two majority shareholders – Pearson Education Limited and Longman Group (Overseas Holdings) Limited formally divested their combined 51 percentage holdings in Longman Nigeria plc on the basis of mutually acceptable terms.

Longman Nigeria organised a rebranding ceremony on February 16, 2012, during which it formally became Learn Africa with a distinctive logo.

By re-branding, what do you intend to achieve?

This company seized the opportunity to announce its determination to place greater emphasis on customer satisfaction, product quality and value addition. We also pledged to ensure a more judicious management of the company’s resources in order to enhance shareholders’ value. Besides, we declared our intention to renew our vision with an uncommon passion to provide products of international standard that will enable the company to sustain the confidence and patronage of our ever-loyal customers. It is worthy of note that the rebranding event was attended by commissioners of education, chairmen of State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs), representatives of Pearson Education, authors, teachers, students, booksellers and other stakeholders in the Nigerian educational sector.

What happens to Pearson Education titles?

We are glad to inform you that we have successfully introduced new titles into the Nigerian market as replacements for some of the Pearson Education titles that were withdrawn from our list. Specifically, we have replaced New General Mathematics with New Concept Mathematics. Junior English Project and Senior English Project were also replaced with New Concept English. Furthermore, Concise Grammar was introduced as a better substitute for Brighter Grammar while The Echo Series (creative writing) replaced The Drum Beat. It is also interesting to note that we have carried out a thorough revision of some of our publications to align them with the new curriculum requirements and sustain their market acceptance.

These include Phonics Is Fun, I Can Read, My Language Books, Science Is Fun, Senior Secondary Physics, Senior Secondary Chemistry, Biology for Senior Secondary Schools, Economics for Senior Secondary Schools, Quantitative Reasoning for Primary Schools and Verbal Reasoning for Primary Schools. Moreover, we came out with brand new titles like Civic Education for Senior Secondary Schools, New Computer Studies for Senior Secondary Schools, Uto Igbo (Junior Secondary Igbo Course), Okachamma Igbo (Primary Igbo Course) and Hasken Karatu (Primary Hausa Course). Similarly, we released Model School Register of Attendance, Model Diary for Primary Schools, Model Diary for Junior Secondary Schools and Model Diary for Senior Secondary Schools. In addition, we have originated 96 new titles and produced over 20 million copies of our various publications.

Without any doubt, we have been able to broaden the range of our product portfolio in order to meet the increasingly growing and dynamic needs of our customers.

What has been your performance in terms of sales and what are your strategies to ensure that you control the largest share of the market?

Concerning sales and marketing, this company has been able to execute significant bulk book supply contracts from Ogun, Gombe and Katsina States