By Princewill Ekwujuru

Members of the House of Representatives at the 2012 Advertising Forum have recommended that the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) be strengthened and given constitutional powers to guarantee its effectiveness in regulating all aspects of advertising in the overall interest of stakeholders and consumers.

The National Assembly members present at the forum tagged: Outdoor Advertising Regulation and Control in Nigeria  include; Senator Ayogu Eze, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Chairman Senate Committee on Information, Hon Nwabueze Okafor, Chairman, ALGON, Minister of Information Labaran Maku represented by Hon Mustapha Habib, Dr. Davis Sekote representing the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Hon Aminu  Tambuwal, gave assurance towards facilitating legislation on harmonizing the present multiplicity and conflict controlling influences on Outdoor advertising in Nigeria.

The legislators agreed that the legislation to be enacted will create a standardized regulatory regime that permits the effectiveness of outdoor advertising, satisfy a legitimate expectation of the government and the overriding concern for environmental safety, social and economic well being of the citizens.

The  House member also advised APCON to strengthen the global competitiveness of Nigeria’s advertising, protect the right of Nigerian citizens, the interest of Nigeria’s security,  the environment, tourism and culture and take steps to check the displacement of Nigerians by non- Nigerians in the country’s advertising and marketing industry.

At the end of deliberations, the conference identified and analyzed areas of conflict and proposed some measures that need to be taken to achieve a better thriving and mutually rewarding outdoor advertising industry in Nigeria.

The conference regretted that outdoor advertising is faced with a threatening challenge arising from the actions of various tiers and agencies of the government who seek to boost their internally generated revenue through control of outdoor advertising.

The participants also agreed that the development of outdoor industry is stalled by the impact of multiple and sometimes arbitrary control. This has led to collapse of several SMEs who can no longer afford the huge cost of advertising displays and have massive loss of employment and other economic and social consequences.

Participants told government and their agencies to focus more on cost effective utilization of resources available to them rather than the prevailing persistent drive for internal revenue which has put outdoor advertising under pressure.

On multiple taxation, the conference posited that a system should be developed to provide for a one stop clearance and approval for outdoor advertising structures in every state. Such a system should provide a central collection of revenue from outdoor business which is later shared by all relevant government agencies and tiers of government in the pattern of VAT system.  FG should provide the support in standardizing the role of each tier of government.

Speakers who include  Idigbe, a legal practitioner, Lolu Akinwunmi, APCON chairman, Bunmi Oke, President of AAAN, Charles Chijide, President of OAAN, Kola Oyeyemi, President of ADVAN, Tolu Ogunkoya, President of MIPAN, DG of Oyo Advertising Signage Agency, Yinka Adepoju, Chairman of OAAN, Charles Chijide and others  identified challenges confronting outdoor business in Nigeria.