Nigeria International Book Fair 2025 settles for Balmoral Convention Centre, Ikeja, Lagos
By Anote Ajeluorou
NIGERIA Book Fair Trust (NBFT), organisers of the 24th edition of Nigeria International Book Fair (NIBF) 2025, scheduled from Wednesday, May 7 to Friday, May 9, 2025, has announced a new venue for the 2025 edition of the book fair. The new is venue is the Balmoral Convention Centre, behind Sheraton Hotels, Ikeja, Lagos. In the last few years, the book fair has moved venue in its bid to find a suitable home for the premier book showpiece that makes for ease of doing book business. Having been held at the mainland Multi-Purpose Hall of the University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos for many years, unsuitability of the venue forced NBFT to move venue to Lagos Island at Harbour Point Event Centre, Ahmadu Bellow Way, Victoria Island, Lagos. But then it also proved unsuitable after two years as traffic of book patrons was poor, and an accessible venue needed to be found. This time NBFT settled for Yard 158 Events Arena on Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun Road, Ikeja. But after two years of unsatisfactory use, the need for a new venue became inevitable with Balmoral Convention Centre taking the vote after the National Theatre, renamed Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and Creative Arts, was also considered but adjudged unsuitable.
At the weekend meeting of the Fair Management and Award Committee (FMAC), chaired by Mr. Olugbemi Malomo, the new venue was announced by NBFT’s Executive Secretary Mr. Abiodun Omotubi who listed the numerous advantages the Balmoral Convention Centre will afford both local and international guests, as exhibitors and patrons expected at the book fair. Among the advantages of the new venue, Mr. Omotubi named its closeness to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, with no less than three 5-star hotels within a 3-minute drive that include Sheraton, Marriot and Radisson Blu Hotel aamong several other 3-star hotels guests can find lodging. The new venue also has good security, because of these big hospitality outfits which Mr. Omotubi said makes the new venue “better than all previous venues for the book fair.”
At the FMAC meeting, four sub-committees and their chairmen were inaugurated by the President of NBFT and Managing Director of CSS Bookshop Ltd, Mr. Dare Oluwatuyi to drive the smooth organisation of this year’s book fair. The sub-committees include ‘Programmes and Hospitality’, ‘Finance and Fundraising’, ‘Children and Schools’ Programmes’ and ‘Marketing, Publicity and ICT’.
President of NBFT and Managing Director of CSS Bookshop Ltd, Mr. Dare Oluwatuyi
Also, the theme for NIBF 2025 yearly international conference was unveiled by Mr. Omotubi. While ‘Local Paper Production: Panacea to Affordable Book Production and Qualitative Education’ is the theme for 2025 book fair, ‘Overcoming the Global Competitiveness Challenge in Nigeria’s Tertiary Education Landscape’ is the topic for the Tertiary Education Summit, a new programme initiative recently introduced to the book fair bouquet as part of non-governmental interventionist approach to rev up effective policy formulation that could take Nigeria’s education from its current parlous state to a better and progressive one. With Bola Ahmed Tinubu allocating a mere 7 per cent to education in the 2025 national budget as against the recommended 26 per cent by UNESCO, it is no surprise that the country’s educational sector will continue to nosedive and drive learners away to study abroad. The concomitant result of the quest for better education abroad is capital flight, and forex demand that puts more pressure on an already weak local currency that continues to pile pressure on families struggling to survive. It’s the hope of the book fair organisers that alternative options outside of government’s seeming inability to think outside the box be sought with the result that a mix of ideas could enrich planners of tertiary education to produce better results. The Tertiary Education Summit is the third in the series.
