A walk into the Ikeja-based Dayspring Book Stores easily revealed a new forest of books in the heart of a city. Located at 32, Adeniyi Jones Street in Ikeja, the new home of books headed by its founder and clergy, Segun Asaba, has the dream of transforming lives through motivational and Christian books.

With an array of literatures spanning the Bible (in different editions), books, booklets, CDs, DVDs, souvenirs and other gift items, both for adults and children, the company no doubt addresses topics on Christianity, prayer, health, business, music and entertainment, management and general issues.

In short, it gives answers to all questions by every knowledge seeker. The company, which also runs a reader’s club, according to Asaba, aims at encouraging knowledge acquisition for abundant life. It also promotes reading culture as a social responsibility in Nigeria and beyond.

In the words of Asaba, the mission of the company is to facilitate access to knowledge through provision of high quality literature resources and Christian products. Essentially, the company seeks “ for long term profitability and growth, trusting in the ability of God to teach us to profit, give us power to get wealth and give us power to eat thereof.”
Speaking with Daily Sun recently, Asaba spoke on his vision for Dayspring and how in just six months, his dreams are becoming a reality.

Vision
The vision is to go into bookstores, book retailing and sales and it was divinely inspired. Three years ago, I never nursed the ambition of investing in books. In the last 23 years, I’ve worked in a corporate organization in various capacities and departments, and as God says there’s time for everything, in May 2007, the inspiration came with a voice from God. I heard that it was time I should go out and do something else.

At that time, I was doing quite well as a Senior Manager in Guinness and there were prospects for me to go even higher, so it was astonishing for me to retire. I then asked a question on what I should do, and the revelation was that I should go into book management and book reading. I took this up as a challenge and prayed about it, and I heard a confirmation in my heart and told my wife and family about it.

I later informed my employers about it, it wasn’t easy as they asked me to stay on but I had to wait for another nine months before leaving finally on July 8, 2008. But right from the day I received the vision, every step I had taken had proved to me that the hand of God was in everything. It was clear God was taking me to higher realms-somewhere totally different from where I was coming.

Securing the future
Well, before I tendered my resignation letter to the management of Guinness, I had attended several pre-retirement courses, which have set my mind on retirement. Some of the things they used to tell us in the company include the need to save for a rainy day. At the time I was leaving, all I had in terms of savings, property and stock was substantial but I knew that would not take me anywhere as far as the project was concerned. But I also knew that having spent 23 years in a company and God asking me to leave, the same God would see me through where He said I should go.
In addition to these, my wife was quite supportive, just as my father. My mother was a bit skeptical but I told her that all I’ve achieved was not by my power and I was able to achieve my goals.

Dealing with books
Since it was a divine voice that gave me direction, I instantly knew what direction to follow. I knew God would rather want me to handle books that would transform lives rather than books that will bring money to me. After all, it was a divine inspiration I got, so it didn’t take me longer time to rationalize the direction to follow as far as book management and sales are concerned. And since I’ve settled for books that would transform lives, I decided to focus on the Bible, as well as books that derive their sources from the Bible.

Responses from the public
I give thanks to God because He has continued to confirm His call in my life. We started full operation in December last year but before then, I’ve traveled far and wide to develop and train myself for the new task. I’ve been to the US, UK and China (Hong Kong) where I attended seminars, conferences and classes and met with writers, authors, publishers of Christian books and literature who brought me closer to themselves and taught me more about the business of marketing Christian books.
All these went on for nine months up till last December. We actually started about a week before Christmas and we were worried that the ship and containers hadn’t arrived. But we prayed and the containers arrived and we cleared the books, and after the dedication by my Senior Pastor, we started and people have really shown interest in our products.
In the last six months, I’ve had reasons to change my perception that Nigerians don’t read. All we need to do is to encourage our people, bring in more technology and do more investment and make the prices more affordable and bring high quality books.

Cost of books/affordability to clients
The current situation has posed a great challenge to those of us in the book industry. By January and February this year, the prices were still affordable but lately, foreign exchange has increased by 50 percent. Nevertheless, we have a challenge as booksellers. First, we need to source for good books and to let our suppliers know what we are facing here. We also need to raise our bargaining power and let our suppliers abroad know that they would remain in business for as long as we who patronize them keep afloat at the domestic front. Another challenge for us is to keep to our vision as book managers and retailers. For example, the American President of Christian Books International whom I met in Hong Kong told me that if it was money that propelled my interest in books, I should not come into it. He backed up his points with statistics of people who had earlier invested in books and never made profits from it. So my message to booksellers is that whenever they plan, they should control their costs in-house and at the end of the day, break even and stay in business.

Types of books
Two things determine our selection of books. Before we started, I never had the idea of the authors or types of books to market. I used to have a number of management books, but not Christian books. But because of divine direction, I met a number of Americans who taught me how to go about it, having had a good understanding of the Nigerian book market. While I was preparing for the business, I was able to speak with a number of people and companies such as Ify music, Lantana etc who have been into the business and they have actually taught me one or two things.

But above all, what we are doing now is mainly to satisfy our customers. We have opened a notebook for our customers who give their views and comments on our services and the types of books they desire. Since March this year, our decision in buying books has been customer-tailored. The customers come in to express their interests and we do ask them what they want, and this has always guided our purchases and supplies. And when we can’t meet their needs, we make promises to satisfy them whenever they return to us.

Guiding against piracy
This is a big problem but the Nigerian Booksellers Association is really working to combat it. The association is also getting support from the FG on how to check piracy of books being marketed by our members. But the truth is that piracy can’t be totally eradicated in our society, and this is because there is market for it and since pirates sell at a lower price and also at low quality.
Nevertheless, it is wrong to assume that certain books that are printed in Nigeria are pirated. Some of the books that are printed in Nigeria were actually licensed to local printers, publishers or booksellers. Some of these local outfits have international rights to mass-produce the books from overseas and later pay royalties to the parent sources.

Background
I was born about 51 years ago in Jos, Plateau State. I started my primary education in the North before my parents moved to the South at the break of the Civil war. I attended St. Charles Grammar School, Osogbo and left in 1974. I later studied at the Polytechnic Ibadan School of Basic Studies after which I proceeded to the University of Ibadan in 1976. I graduated with a BSc in Chemistry in 1980 and had my NYSC, but later gained admission into the University of London on Federal Government scholarship for my Post Graduate Studies in Management and Food Sciences. I graduated in 1984 and returned to the country later in the year to start work with Guinness Nigeria Plc in 1985 as a Production Management Trainee. Between 1985 and 2008, I served in many capacities and rose to the level of senior manager. I also obtained an MBA in Finance while serving Guinness.