HASG fault Lagos, Kaduna governments onslaught on OOH media
Kaduna state governor, El-Rufai. Photo/facebook/nasirelrufai
Members of the Heads of Advertising Sectoral Group (HASG) have condemned the onslaught by Lagos and Kaduna States against Out-of-Home Advertising media, insisting that the development can strangulate business.
Addressing journalists in Lagos recently, the members argued that concessions and franchises promote monopoly and the HASG is unanimously opposed to it in whatever form.
The members who addressed journalists are, the President, Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria (EXMAN), Mr. Tunji Adeyinka; President Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), Mr. Osamede Uwubanmwen; President, Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Mr. Steve Babaeko; President Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), Chief Emmanuel Ajufo and Executive Secretary, Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN), Mr. Eki Adzufeh.
In Lagos, the members observed that LASAA has continued to grant individuals that are not registered practitioners to own billboards and operate, contrary to the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) guidelines.
They said this development is eroding APCON’s regulatory functions and promoting quackery in the advertising industry.
Continuing, they noted that LASAA’s plan to concession seven of the major roads in the state to bidders, and the successful ones to own and operate franchises on such roads for a period of ten years, is no doubt a grave danger while urging Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to prevail on the agency to shelve it.
Specifically, in Kaduna State, the members disclosed that the overbearing influence of government departments with the responsibility to control the practice of Out-of-Home Advertising reared its ugly head when Kaduna State Urban Planning and Development Authority KASUDA gave billboard owners seven days within which to remove their structures from certain areas of the city.
Continuing, they said while discussions were still ongoing, the state rolled out the bulldozers and pulled down billboard structures, prevented the owners from recovering them and sold them off to those who trade in scraps.
According to them, we have since found out that the whole essence is to allow some favoured business owners, close to the corridors of power in Kaduna State to install their LED platforms in those areas, and have the monopoly of practising there. This is another form of franchising, and HASG frowns at it. The HASG wishes to caution LASAA and KASUPDA as well as those other states that might be planning such acts as highlighted above that they are acting illegally and would end up creating more problems for the industry.
Conclusively, the members said for the avoidance of doubts, the HASG would not hesitate to issue a boycott instruction to all advertisers against any state that engages in such infractions as have been committed by LASAA and KASUPDA.
