During a press conference which held in Lagos last week, Bambooks launched a mobile application which stands as Nigeria’s largest online library. The digital library allows users to access thousands of eBooks, magazines and comics from any internet related devices such as mobile devices, tablets, and computers.
Nigeria has the largest mobile market in Africa with over 160 million connected lines and 100 million internet users. With plans to expand across Africa, Bambooks is eyeing the 450 million subscriber base. According to Seun Ashaka, Head of Content Acquisition, “Information is available to anyone that has access to the internet and mobile phones have become so smart you can do almost anything with them.”
“We estimate the publishing industry across Sub Saharan Africa to exceed a billion dollars in annual revenues by the end of 2018 and expect authors on our platform to earn a significant share of the market,” Ashaka added.
Bambooks seeks to empower local authors to distribute and monetize their craft throughout Africa. The digital library attempts to bridge the gap between the readers and the books because the distribution of physical books in Nigeria is a major challenge due to little bookstores or libraries across major cities in the country.
These infrastructure problems lead to low literacy level and poor reading habits as people don’t have resources to travel long distances to get books or buy the books at hiked prices. The unavailability of these books also increases the chances of piracy with annual losses to legitimate owners of these books. Bambooks hopes to solve these infrastructural problems with the use of the digital library.
There is a popular belief that Africans don’t read and if you are to hide a thing from an African man, it can be hidden in a book. Bambooks intends to change this notion by proving that Africans (particularly Nigerians) love reading books both by local and international writers.
“Bambooks will not only entertain and educate people but also improve literacy levels, break the cycle of poverty and create a better future for Nigerians,” said Ugo Okoye, the founder and CEO of Bambooks.
Get started!
There is a wide range of options for every reader to pick from, romantic-fiction or entrepreneurship or religious and so much more. Users can access the books through the website or download the Bambooks mobile app from the Google play store or App store for free and sign up for reading.
Bambooks offers affordable membership prices that give users unlimited access to the library.
