Longhorn in Zambia, Senegal expansion

Longhorn Publishers plans to set up offices for its publishing business in Zambia, Namibia and Senegal in the next three years as part of a plan aimed at netting higher revenues through digital books.

The publisher, whose shares are publicly traded on the Nairobi bourse, said it will use Senegal as its main hub in French-speaking West Africa as it eyes further expansion into the region in line with its strategic plan to 2021.

“Based on recent approvals of over 90 per cent of our learning materials by the regulatory bodies, it then gives us an opportunity to penetrate the parental buying markets (countries from where they will operate from),” the firm said yesterday in reference to Namibia and Zambia.

Longhorn runs subsidiaries in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda with distribution partnerships in Senegal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Malawi, Zambia and Ethiopia.

The firm has since 2006 been working on spreading its wings across Africa leveraging on its digital books.

Longhorn’s sales revenue for the year ended June rose 16.84 per cent to Sh1.7 billion, returning an after tax profit of Sh183.60 million.