APNET is the African Publishers Network - a pan-african organization established in 1992, which brings together natinonal publishers associations and publishing communities to strengthen indigenous publishing throughout Africa. The organisation functions according to a simple and effective structure which is composed of the General Council, a Board, a Secretariat and Programme Committiees. The activities of APNET comprise training, capacity building, trade promotion, information, research and documentation, international relations. APNET's secretariat is based in Accra, Ghana.

General Council
The General Council meets every two years. It is the supreme authority and the organization's decision-maker. All the members are represented. Its members are the representatives of the national publishers associations, founder members, affiliates and associates. The General Council elects the Board members and approves all questions of policy relating to APNET.

Board
The Board is the executive arm of the General Council and is composed of the Chairman, Treasurer, Vice-Chairperson and a representative from each of the regions into which Full Members are grouped and others from Full Members present, giving regard to regional coverage. The task of the Board is to interpret and guide the implementation of the policies of APNET. To achieve that successfully, the Board depends on the Secretariat.

At the just ended General Council Meeting held in Cape Town on 14 – 15 June 2007, a Board was put in place. The Board was mandated to put APNET back on track and to look at its programmes to make them manageable. The new Board members are as follows:

Chairman: Brian Wafawarowa (South Africa)
Treasurer: Ray Munamwimbu (Zambia)
Vice-Chairperson: Nancy Karimi (Kenya)
Member: David Kibuuka (Uganda)
Co-opted Member: Akoss Ofori-Mensah (Ghana)

The strategy of the Board is to work with the amended constitution to further restructure the organization as recommended by the Task Team and the General Council.

The strategy of the committee to restructure the organization is outlined in this document [click here ] (Document is in PDF Format)

Secretariat
The Secretariat, located in Accra, Ghana, is composed of the Executive Director only at the moment. The Secretariat is the administrative arm of APNET and the executor of the policies.

Programme Committees
Lastly, there are the Programme Committees, which are in place to supervise activities in the different programmmes. Each Committee is headed by a Board member. To date there is a project KAWI in progress apart from the others committees.

Membership
There are four levels of membership : Full, Founding, Affiliate, and Associate. Full membership embraces national publishers associations. Founding members constitute a group of publishers from the 9 countries, which initially founded APNET. This is to ensure that the original vision for setting up APNET remains always sharply focused.
Affiliate membership includes interested persons or organisations, which share APNET's aims and objectives and belong to the bigger family of publishing : editors, booksellers, designers, printers, etc.

For the Affiliate members registration form (click here).

Associate membership is reserved for individuals or organisations with an outstanding record of service to African publishing. Unlike the other categories, which can be applied for, Associate Membership can be conferred only by invitation from the General Council.

Who qualifies to be a member?
All national publishers associations in Africa qualify to be members. They can each elect a representative to the General Council. Where there is no publishers' association, the General Council may appoint or elect a representative for a limited period of two years. Full members are referred to as Country Representatives.

Member Countries (Standings as of December 2007)