Image Merchants appoints heads of new divisions for optimum performance in 2024

The board of Image Merchants Promotion Limited (IMPR), the publisher of PRNigeria and Economic Confidential, has approved robust measures and policies meant to reposition the company from 2024.

The Board, in its virtual meeting, resolved to change its editorial and commercial modus operandi in the new year to sustain the company’s status as one of the leading integrated media organisations in Nigeria.

Abdulrahman Abdulraheem is now the Managing Editor and Head of Media and Editorial Services; Sa’ad Shuaib is the General Manager, Human Resources and Finance, and Mohammed Dahiru Lawal is head of Innovation and Special Projects.

Board Chairman, Dr Sule Yau Sule said the company’s achievements in 2023 called for celebration, adding that IMPR is now a brand name in Public Relations, Development Journalism and Fact-check in Africa and across the globe.

Sule recalled that the company successfully hosted a series of activities, including the publication of books and research on national security. It also hosted the Security and Emergency Management Awards (SAEMA), Spokespersons’ Communication Awards (SCA), Arewa Stars Awards (ASA) and the Economic Confidential Summit.

The chairman, however, observed that IMPR’s revenue earnings are not commensurate with its accomplishments, productive programs and projects, adding a need to have a clientele for retainership services.

“We should not continue to operate like a charity organisation but as a serious business enterprise where we must earn revenue for our operations. The management should, therefore, work towards translating goodwill into financial patronage by designing and fixing rates for its services,” he added.

The deputy chairman of the Board, Alhaji Yusuf Ali, corroborated the position and stated that the major stakeholders should be converted to clients to benefit from the services of the integrated communication outfit.

“IMPR should develop standard service rates for adverts, special reports and other consultancy services by entering into retainership with governments at all levels and financial institutions in the private sector for clientele. The stakeholders should know that IMPR is in business,” Ali said.

Managing Director/CEO, Mallam Yushau A. Shuaib, presented the company’s significant activities and breakthroughs in 2023. He informed that in addition to the PRNigeria Centre in Abuja and Kano State, there’s a plan to open another office in Ilorin, Kwara State, to expand mentorship and advocacy programmes.

“With over 20 staff at our PRNigeria Centres in Abuja and Kano, most of them graduates and certified members of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR). We successfully undertook groundbreaking research projects, awareness campaigns, investigative reports and fact-checking.

“Through our capacity building programme, we mentored 34 interns, mostly mass communication students, on practical skills of journalism and PR. Also in 2023, with the support of NITDA and the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), we trained 109 youths and women on digital tools for communication and other modern skills.

“Further, while NIPR approved the hosting of National Spokespersons Awards, we bagged African SABRE Award at the Conference of the Africa Public Relations Association (APRA) in Zambia; Golden World Award of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) in Spain; Certificate of Excellence at World Public Relations Forum (WPRF) in India, etc,” he said.

Mr Shuaib also announced that the three-year project with the WSCIJ with support from the MacArthur Foundation will end in 2024. Others at the board meeting were Mr Ewache Ajefu (Director), Alhaji Ismailia Sani (Director), Barr. Yunus Abdulrahman (Secretary/Legal Adviser) and Mohammed Dahiru Lawal (IMPR staff member).

Image Merchants, also the publisher of Spokespersons’ Digest, Emergency Digest, Tech Digest, Health Digest and Arewa Agenda, was declared the Most Creative Public Relations Agency worldwide by the Global Creativity Index (GCI) in 2020.