In continuation of its holistic maxim of “Making printing profitable again in Nigeria”, the present Council of Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria (CIPPON) recently began a Nationwide Membership Registration Drive starting from the commercial city – Lagos. WHERE To Print caught up with CIPPON 1st Vice President & Head of Enforcement/ Compliance – Comrade Babajide Salako who sheds light on the enumeration exercise, benefits to the printing community., and other sundry issues. Read excerpt of the Special Features Interview below:
WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF THE NATIONWIDE MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION EXERCISE THAT STARTED IN LAGOS STATE RECENTLY?
The Nationwide Enumeration and Registration Exercise actually started in Abuja over a month ago and this is being followed by the ongoing exercise in Lagos State starting from Somolu (the Hub of Printers) and to other Printers locations in Lagos environs. As Section 9 of CIPPON ACT 24 says: “There shall be a body established to register and categorize printing houses”, one of the basic objectives of this exercise is to galvanize the true statistics of our members – both individual and corporate memberships. Hence, this enumeration exercise is part of our duty and strategic repositioning of the Nigeria Printing Industry for profitability.
AFTER LAGOS, WHERE NEXT AND HOW CAN ONE APPLY ONLINE AND GET CERTIFIED?
We are somewhat flexible on this as not to have a rigid or regimented arrangement of schedules. The situation reports across the States are not the same and may not be peculiar to Lagos. Therefore, we allow each State to determine her schedule and within the time frame of June to July ending 2022 we have earmarked 5 States. However, in line to follow Lagos is Oyo State already warming up for the third week in July while Rivers State and Kaduna State will follow in the Fourth week.
To apply online, intending member should log into our website: www.cippon.org/register You can be certified after the screening and categorization of your membership status.
At the moment, CIPPON is planning to introduce various levels of exams for new entrants and existing members who may want to upgrade from their present Membership status.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF CIPPON REGISTRATION TO BOTH INDIVIDUALS AND COMPANIES?
Sometimes when confronted with this question of what “benefits” is in for members I get amused, why? Because most time we think about ourselves first (pardon me if I am being personal here) than the Institution we are supposed to first build which in turn will ultimately be beneficial to all. Be that as it may, the benefits accrued to members and companies are many. Among them are:
- Any Member or Printing Press certified by CIPPON with our Membership Certificate/Corporate License are Professional Printers and this separates them from the quacks.
- As the Regulatory Body, the Institute serves as the best and first point of contact to project the image of her members and the Industry before the Government and the outside world.
- CIPPON gives you the right or license to practice as a Printer and earn an income in the Printing Industry in Nigeria, and many more.
WHAT IS REQUIRED FROM EACH APPLICANT – BE IT INDIVIDUAL OR COMPANY?
For any intending applicant, the first thing to do is to obtain the membership registration form as the case may be either individual or corporate. Either online or physical form, fill the form and attach all the necessary documents and return it to the Secretariat. It is after the form is submitted that other processes will follow through screening etc.
WHAT ARE THE CONSIDERATIONS FOR EACH MEMBERSHIP LEVELS?
This will depend on the information supplied in the form. There are different categories of membership. For Individuals, we have Fellow, Honorary Fellow, Full Membership, Associates, Affiliates, Graduates, Students and Apprenticeship. In the case of Companies, we have Super Large, Large, Medium, Small and Micro.
FOR THOSE APPRENTICES OR PRINT BUSINESS OWNERS WITHOUT CERTIFIED PRINTING EDUCATION, HOW WILL THEY BE CERTIFIED AS CIPPON MEMBER?
CIPPON ACT stipulates that those in the printing practice before the birth of the ACT 24 of 2007 are automatic Members of the Institute. This was about 15 years ago. However, for those who missed the opportunity to register till date but are now applying to register will have to write entry exams for any category of their membership after undergoing tutorial in line with our curriculum. Part of the things we are trying to do is to lay more emphasis on skilled acquisition for those categories of membership in partnership with National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).
WITH DIFFERENT MEMBERSHIP STATUS, HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE AN AVERAGE APPLICATION TO BE CONCLUDED AND CERTIFIED AS CIPPON MEMBER?
There are a whole lot of processes involved; receiving the application, doing the due diligence of screening both within and externally. Sometimes, applicants may not supply enough information to assist in grading which will result in correspondences between the Institute and the applicant back and forth. If everything is well put in place, we should be talking of a minimum of three (3) month.
HOW WILL YOU CERTIFY COMPANIES IN ORDER TO GRADE THEM ACCORDINGLY; AND WILL THERE BE PHYSICAL INSPECTION OF PRESSES ESPECIALLY TO KNOW ABOUT THEIR CAPACITIES?
Just as it is in the Individual Membership, the same applies to the Company License in terms of information supplied – the only difference is that we are talking of equipment here. The number of equipment supplied will be the basis for determining the company’s capacity and categorization. Of course, CIPPON has to do a physical inspection of the company to ascertain the veracity of their claims. In any case, it will be to their own disadvantage, if they try to be smart. One good thing about the Corporate Licensing is that it is verifiable online through our website on https//: verify.cippon.org
WITH FAKE CERTIFICATES AND RESULTS FLYING AROUND, HOW WILL CIPPON VERIFY AND ENSURE AUTHENTICITY OF DOCUMENTS PRESENTED?
So far, we have not experienced anything of such. One of the mantras of this Council and as sign post by the President – Mr. Olugbemi Malomo is the building of Institutional Integrity. We have the Code of Conduct for our members and Standard Operation Procedure as our guiding principles. We do have our own internal mechanism of putting any social vices in check, this I may not be able to let out for peculiar reasons. For instance, we have coded security details on our Certificates/Licenses and it can be verified online.
AFTER THIS REGISTRATION EXERCISE, WHAT NEXT?
Obviously, we’ll collate all the data submitted and put them in our data bank. The data would assist us in our engagement with the Government, Government Institutions and Private parastatals. All the forms submitted will be screened and categorized. Applicants will be communicated as to when to write the various exams. The whole process will culminate in induction of members at appropriate time.
WHAT PRACTICAL STEPS IS THE PRESENT COUNCIL TAKING TO ADDRESS ISSUES LIKE STAFF POACHING, HARASSMENT, THEFT, DRUG ABUSE AND OTHER VICES IN THE WORKPLACE IN ORDER TO GROW AND SUSTAIN PRINT BUSINESSES IN THE COUNTRY?
The Issue of social vices in our industry as mentioned has been with us from time immemorial and to stop the menace it behooves on every responsible print practitioner to put a stop to it. The best approach is to address and curb this menace is the introduction of “Clusters” by the present Council led by the indefatigable President – Mr. Malomo. The Clusters are interconnected and manageable areas of specialization of the Printing Industry ecosystem for development and profitability.
The Clusters bring growth, innovation, regional development, fair competition, resource sharing and protection against external influence. Such Clusters are; Speciality Printing, Pre-Press, Printing Processes e.g. Commercial Printing, Digital Printing, Large Format Printing etc also Post-Press; finishing and Binding etc. We have gone to the extent of writing the Cluster’s Code of Conduct. We have everything on Clusters in Print already which contains every step to be taken to address all the vices you mentioned. Members should pick up a copy at our Secretariat at Adebowale House, Onipanu Lagos.
In addition, we will soon certify all categories of staff particularly operations – each with a unique ID that will make them accountable to their Terms of Employment professionally.
PERSONALLY, PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF, HOW YOU STARTED PRINT BUSINESS, AND PLANS FOR CIPPON AS VICE PRESIDENT AND HEAD OF ENFORCEMENT?
I was born into a printing family because that was my late father’s business. He was one of the foremost Master Printers of his era at Ebute-Metta, Lagos Mainland. His Company Name was Fortunate Printing Works where virtually all my father’s children have the knowledge of at least one printing process.
I started my printing tutelage under him and after my early education, I attended a vocational school (Nigeria Institute of Printing and Graphic Arts, Yaba) and later proceeded to Yaba College of Technology to further my Studies in Printing Technology where I graduated. I worked with the Daily Times Plc for 13 years and served at various positions as Marketing Manager at Times Press LTD (the Commercial wing of Daily Times Plc), Production Manager (Daily Times Publications) and Assistant Industrial Relations Manager before signing off in 2001. I have my own business outfit – Basal Prints.
On CIPPON Council, please note that the Council operates with Committees and each Council Member heads a Committee and reports to the Council. I handle any duty assigned to me by the President or as may be decided by the Council and same applies to other Council Members.
My job as Head of Enforcement starts after all due processes of interfacing with the printing houses have been completed. Where it is found that certain printing house has either failed to comply with the statutory regulations of CIPPON, such printing house is referred to the Enforcement Committee. It is a long process of about 7 steps starting with a letter of Compulsory Enumeration and Registration till the last step of Non – Compliance before Enforcement.
In between, we do some counseling, awareness and sensitization through verbal communications. We do more of appeal than enforcement. We have not had course to seal any press as we do hope it won’t get to that. We already have the synergy, cooperation, and support of the Nigerian Police on Enforcement in line with ACT 24 of 2007 which established CIPPON, though we have to be circumspect in dealing with recalcitrant members.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME SIR.