By DANJUMA JOSEPH, Lafia –
Governor Abdullahi Sule, of Nasarawa State, has commissioned a remodeled government printing press built in 2001 but which his administration remodeled into a state-of-the-art facility, showcasing cutting-edge technology that would compete with any commercial printing press.
Governor Sule commissioned the facility during a ceremony at the Ministry for Information, Culture and Tourism on Thursday.
While inaugurating the refurbished printing press, the Governor directed that henceforth, all Ministries, Departments and Agencies in Nasarawa State must patronize the government printing press for all their official requirements.
He particularly direct both the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, as well as the management of the government printing press to ensure that they provide top-quality services to meet the demands of the MDAs and other customers.
Governor Sule used the opportunity of the event to appreciate those who first initiated the project in the year 2001, even though through the years the facility became grounded as a result of obsolete equipment.
“We thank God Almighty for giving us the opportunity to be able to transform the printing press. Today, we have cutting-edge technology, we have new equipment and we will be able to print nearly most of today’s documents. We can print our gazettes, receipts, posters, banners and everything you can think of, in line with today’s technology,” he stated.
The Governor charged the management of the facility to ensure that the government press remains not only competitive but that it is fully utilized to be able to generate much needed internal revenue for the state.
“We want to make it competitive, we want to be able to cut cost, we want to have new technology that we would be able to train our own technicians in the state for them to acquire knowledge on how to operate a digital printing press. At the end of the day, it will be an improved IGR to the state,” he said.
In order to fully utilize the facility, Governor Sule emphasized on his two-way directive for the Head of Service of the state to issue a circular mandating MDAs to patronize the new government printing press.
“The first directive is for the Head of Service to send a circular to all the MDAs to ensure that they print their documents here. Another directive is on the part of the management of the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, as well as the management of the printing press, to ensure they provide top quality, competitive services. That is why I said it’s a two-way directive. While we are ensuring that they are patronized one hundred percent, we want to also make sure that their quality meets the needs of the customers. They now have topnotch equipment and facilities that would be able to compete and so they have no reason not to be able to produce even better quality than some of the commercial printing press that we have in the state,” he stated.
Speaking with journalists during the event, Nasarawa State Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr. Ibrahim Tanko, appreciated Governor Sule for undertaking the complete upgrade of the government printing press.
The Commissioner said the new facility would afford government documents and materials to be printing secretly and confidentially, completely removing the risk of exposing sensitive document by going to commercial printing presses.
He assured that his ministry and management of the government printing press would ensure maximum utilization of the facility, in line with the directives of the Governor.
“We are going to work and compete with other commercial printing presses to deliver top-quality services,” he said.
