In March, Masobe Books did something that many people in the Nigerian literary space had been asking for without quite knowing how to ask for it. The Lagos-based publisher launched the Masobe App, a mobile reading platform that gives subscribers access to its catalogue of African books at prices calibrated to the economic reality of readers on the continent.

The timing could not have been more deliberate. In early March, a piracy controversy consumed Nigerian literary Twitter for days, after a Google Drive containing over 200 books, many from African publishers, was circulated freely online. The debate that followed was heated and, ultimately, unresolved. Those who shared the drive cited poverty, the collapse of public libraries, and the absurdity of a country where a single book can cost ₦18,000. Those who condemned it pointed to the harm done to writers earning thin royalties and small publishers operating on razor-thin margins.

Masobe’s response is this product. The app offers three subscription tiers for Nigerian readers: a Reader tier at ₦1,999 per month for access to two books; a Bookworm tier at ₦3,999 for five books; and a Scholar tier at ₦5,999 for unlimited access. International readers can subscribe from as little as $2 per month. The library covers fiction, poetry, nonfiction, mystery, fantasy, and science fiction. Readers can also rent individual titles or order physical copies directly through the app. A built-in anti-screenshot feature adds a layer of protection for authors and their work.

Masobe, whose name derives from the Isoko phrase meaning “let us read,” was founded in Lagos in 2018 and has since published more than 200 African writers. The app is the publisher’s clearest statement yet that the access problem in African literature is not a moral failure to be argued out of existence, it is an infrastructure problem to be solved. Affordable, legal, convenient access to African books, available on any phone: that is the pitch, and it is a good one.

The Masobe App is available on the iOS App Store and Google Play.