Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, President of the International Publishers Association (IPA), interacted with local publishers and representatives of the Ghanaian Publishers Association to discuss the enormous opportunities posed by the global pandemic for African publishers to reconstruct their sector for future development.

The visit to Ghana is the fourth in a sequence planned as part of an African tour to meet core organizations heading the publishing industry on the continent and participate in conversation targeted at sharing information and experiences in the wake of COVID-19's current problems. According to Al Qasimi, it would "open doors for future global collaborations, which are a successful route to diversifying our business strategies."

While speaking about the variety of educational solutions available in Africa, Al Qasimi emphasized the potential presented by the sudden move of millions of African students to online education, saying, "This is a massive opportunity for African publishers to start afresh."

Throughout her visit, the IPA President interacted with representatives of the African Publishers Network (APNET), empowering core industry players to collaborate closely with the IPA to identify and pursue unexplored opportunities.

Al Qasimi used the initiative to encourage African publishers to register for the third edition of the Africa Publishing Innovation Fund (APIF), a four-year $800,000 federal program administered by the IPA and co-led by the UAE-based global philanthropic organization Dubai Cares. “We are still searching for domestic solutions to the most prevalent publishing hurdles,” says the APIF.

Following trips to Egypt, Kenya, and the Ivory Coast previously this year, the IPA President has arrived in Ghana. IPA is concentrating on developing effective dialogue with publishers associations around the world to address the developmental challenges plaguing businesses in the pandemic-induced economic environment and to assist them in designing the agile business structure to ensure their sustainable growth and development.

“We intend to hold a series of meetings with publishers around the world,” said the IPA President. The first was with the Arab Publishers Association (APA) and the Egyptian Publishers Association (EPA), in light of the incredible opportunities that the region's publishing industry faces because of the Arab world's large youth population, which is among the highest in the world. The region's youth are eager to learn and are open to new and innovative content. This provides a one-of-a-kind opportunity for publishers in our area.”

Sheikha Bodour, the first Arab woman to be elected President of the IPA and only the second woman in the organization's history, made these remarks throughout a meeting with the APA and EPA in Cairo, Egypt. Mohammed Rashad, President of the APA, Said Abdo, President of the EPA, and many officials and members of both organizations attended the meeting.

Sheikha Bodour's first official engagement since being appointed to her new job at IPA was this meeting. She mentioned that the IPA's agenda for the next few years would include opportunities and risks in the Arab publishing ecosystem.

Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi assured the meeting's attendees and the region's publishers in general, that the IPA will be there to help them. She stated that IPA and its regional community representatives in the Arab world will continue to share information and suggestions in particular for the former to keep informed on industry developments in the area and identify successful mechanisms to aid the export of Arabic content to global markets.

Sheikha Bodour urged publishers to participate more actively in IPA and its committees by shedding light on the positions of specific committees. She reminded the meeting's attendees that the IPA's main responsibility was to protect publishers' interests and to unite their vision and actions to foster a positive and peer-driven framework for the publishing community around the world.