As the body saddled with the responsibility of regulating printers in Nigeria, the Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria, CIPPON, embarked on moves to redefine printing in the country, but printers mainly from Diobu, Mile One in Port Harcourt have expressed reactions, against ways the proposed change by the association will affect them.
Those who spoke to National Network on the development stated this against a recent meeting orgained in Port Harcourt by CIPPON whose executives were said to have come from Lagos State, according to grapevine.
But an insider at the recent meeting, who is a commercial printer, Mr. Williams Attan, stated that the institute brought forward an idea that can only reduce opportunities to printers in Nigeria. According to him, CIPPON by its new regulation wants printers to choose a specialization, instead of general printing that most of his colleagues are into.
According to Attan: “If you are a printer who has a Direct Imaging machine (DI), you have a laminating machine, cutting machine and few others, CIPPON wants you to concentrate on just one of these as a printer.
“I can’t imagine that I have all the machines and I have been in business for years, by CIPPON idea, I will need to sell off all the machines and concentrate on just an aspect of printing. Printing business has never been like that”.
His colleague, Victor Oladipupo at Awgu Street in Mile One, corroborated his view point, saying, I don’t really know what CIPPON means. I have a foiling and embossing machine, apart from lamination and DI machines , now am I supposed to sell off all except one? I don’t want to belong to a group like that”.
Also speaking, a paper cutter who engages in finishing and dicutting works, Wale Adebayo, expresses disappointment over the way and manner CIPPON came in to allegedly destabilize printing business which he reasoned is now an all comer vocation, based on the situation of the Nigerian economy.
He urged CIPPON and its leadership to do a thorough review of their plans before going public with it. According to him, proposition by the body can only take many printers out of business. He noted that CIPPON is not likely to succeed without considering people.
However, a United Kingdom trained printer who operates in Port Harcourt but preferred to be anonymous sees nothing wrong in professionalizing printing further. He stated that despite perceived challenges, CIPPON will help sanitize the printing sector by identifying real printers in Nigeria.
CIPPON was created by an Act of the parliament with the responsibility to regulate, control, manage and administer printers in Nigeria.
