The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON, said it has not received the level of attention or support from government to effectively perform as a regulator of the advertising practice in Nigeria. The Council Registrar, Alhaji Bello Kankarofi, stated this during a courtesy visit by Minister of Information, Mrs. Patricia Akwashiki to the Council.

He said the Council is faced with lots of challenges that has been hindering it from performing as a regulatory body in the advertising sector among other things.

He noted that recent developments in the mass media technology and environment has posed new challenges for effective monitoring of advertisements, to deal with these challenges in the short term, APCON, the registrar said will need to upgrade its technological capabilities and for this purpose requires budgetary assistance from the government.

He went on to say that the foregoing benefits of advertising could easily be jeopardized in an environment of poor or ineffective regulation. Advertising is susceptible to abuse because of its very strong persuasive influence. Therefore, to overcome these harmful effects of advertising that is why various countries adopt various forms of regulation with the overall objective of protecting consumers and citizens from the effects of unwholesome advertising.