The General Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Bible Society of Nigeria, Samuel Sanusi, has said that many Nigerians believe they should get Bibles free while they lavish money on lifestyle products.
According to him, some could pay as much as a million naira for a tablet yet want to have a Bible free.
Sanusi noted this while speaking on the challenges of producing and distributing the canonical book.
In an interview with ‘The Punch’, the BSN boss said: “We recently completed a Bible translation in a spoken language in Kogi State. Because the language had Yoruba roots, we were able to complete it in six years, spending over N90m on translation alone. But we don’t print Bibles locally. We usually produce them in India or China, which means we also have to factor in the cost of production, shipping, and customs duties, customs don’t care that it’s a Bible being imported. They charge standard fees.
“All costs considered, the total rises to about N120m. From that, we can only produce 10,000 copies. If we were to sell those Bibles at a profit, we would need to price them at no less than N15,000 each. The question then becomes: who will buy it at that price? In Nigeria, people expect the Bible to be free. Someone may pay N1m for a tablet, but they still believe a Bible should be given away. Even if we priced it at N10, they’d still ask why it’s not free.
“For instance, the Okun Bible is currently sold at N2,000. How is that possible? It’s because we raise funds and mobilise resources. When donors support a translation project, we’re able to reduce the final cost. If we had to recover the full translation cost through sales, many languages would never get a Bible.”
