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Minister receives report on audience measurement, pledges action

By Gregory Austin Nwakunor
14 August 2020   |   4:16 am
The value of Nigeria’s broadcast advertising market is not proportional to the country’s population, when compared to the top three markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said.

The value of Nigeria’s broadcast advertising market is not proportional to the country’s population, when compared to the top three markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said.

He disclosed that “despite having a population more than three times that of South Africa, Nigeria’s television advertising revenue in 2016 was $309 million, compared to that of South Africa, which was $1.3 billion.”

The minister made the comments while receiving the report of the Audience Measurement Task Team virtually in his office in Abuja. Mohammed, who pledged to implement the report in order to reverse the declining fortunes of broadcast advertising in Nigeria, said the absence of a standard measurement system had resulted in under investment in the broadcast advertising sector and stunted its growth, unlike the Nigerian film, music and fashion industries which have grown significantly over the past decade.

According to him, the immediate task before the government is to bring the under-performing broadcast advertising market to what it should be, which is two to three times its current size.

The minister said this could result in additional $400 million revenue in the industry within the next three years. “The key to achieving that objective is the faithful implementation of the report.”

In his remarks during the virtual submission of the report, Alhaji Bello-Kankarofi, who is a former registrar of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), said the current Audience Measurement System (AMS) was two decades old, still using the old diary method (pen and paper) to collect data on TV viewership and radio listenership across key locations in Nigeria.

Bello-Kankarofi observed that the current practice is challenged by the growing number of TV and radio stations, which the Digital Switch Over mandate will further exacerbate, hence the need to replace it with a scientific measurement system.

Other members of the Task Team, which was inaugurated by the Minister on June 2, 2020, are Mr. Obi Asika; Hajia Sa’a Ibrahim; Mr. Mahmoud Alli-Balogun; Mrs. Pauline Ehusani; Mr. Tolu Ogunkoya and Joe Mutah (secretary).

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Deaconess Grace Isu-Gekpe, and the Acting Registrar of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, Mrs. Ijedi Iyoha, attended the event.

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