As usual we couldn’t help but bring you this remarkable story of Muhtar Bakare, the man who dared to quit his job as a banker to face his passion… Publishing Books. We came across a story Kate kellaway of The Observer wrote about him… and we believe this will inspire you into following your dreams passionately until it becomes a reality…enjoy!

“Muhtar Bakare believes in the quietest of revolutions. He thinks what we read can change us. He has lived and worked in Nigeria all his life and passionately believes everyone has the right to tell their own story.

His own is remarkable. He gave up his position as a bank executive to start an independent publishing house because no one was publishing fiction. Did people shake their heads over the brave folly of his enterprise? “Definitely! But setting up a publishing company was always going to be a challenge. And it still is: we have no distribution network and there is blatant piracy – infringement of intellectual property. People have to struggle against this, which can inhibit the power to be productive.”

But nothing seems to inhibit Bakare. He cites his voracious reading as a spur – he studied architecture at university and was fascinated by politics and economics. This showed him the world was “ruled by ideas and I was concerned Nigerians were not contributing enough to their production”. He became a banker because finance was “part of the way the world was structured” and he understood its influence. But he maintains that, even as he joined, he knew he would one day leave to become a publisher.

His wife still works in banking. They have two children. Did hisshe approve his career move? “I am lucky – she is my soulmate. Her passion is for finance and she loves what she does. But she understands my need to follow my passion.”

Bakare is no impractical idealist. Bakare has a capitalist vision: “Africa must participate in a global marketplace not as aid recipients but as producers on equal terms.” It dismays him that “so many brilliant Africans are involved in aid rather than international trade”.

In 2004, he started Farafina (a Bambara word that translates as “Africa”) a highly regarded online magazine from which his company would grow. (Nowadays, he is managing director of Pearson Nigeria and he no longer runs Farafina, but is still a shareholder and director.) He made contact with writers including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ... read more on
http://9aijabooksandmovies./2012/09/19/muhtar-bakare-the-face-behind-farafina-books-in-nigeria/