By Princewill Ekwujuru

ASSOCIATION of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN, has proposed 49 percent foreign stake to the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON for effective participation of foreign agencies in the Nigerian advertising industry.

The Managing Director of Noah’s Ark, Lanre Adisa made this suggestion at the 42nd Annual General Meeting of AAAN in Oshogbo, Osun state capital, on the topic, Nigeria Advertising: What next?, where said the ad industry reform embarked upon by APCON in 2013 was a good step taken, but argued that the 25 percent foreign stake for foreign agencies was minimal, thus advocated for 49 percent.

He said also that the APCON reform giving 25 percent to foreign agencies is due for a review. “We need to shift the conversation from the fear of foreign invasion to foreign collaboration. The idea of a foreign agency servicing foreign accounts out of Nigeria is a fallacy. According to him,, we should move from 25 percent foreign stake to 49 percent where the majority 51 percent is held by Nigerians.

Adisa went on to say that stricter enforcement of the reform in the realm of advertising practice and media placements.  On the local front, this is where the bleeding is coming from. “APCON must be seen to mean business in this regard with a lot of help from all of us. Collectively, we need to step up our game, so we can do our nation proud, he continued.

The Noah’s Ark  boss was optimistic that the buying in by foreign agencies into the stakes of Nigerian agencie will help improve Nigeria’s advertising space. Further he said: “in 2013, the APCON reforms took effect with the gazette of the 5th Code. The main objective was to shore up the fortunes of advertising businesses through licensing and protection of our self-interest.”

“A critical part of this was the delineation of agencies into national and foreign categories depending on their ownership structure. There was a surge in the membership of AAAN ahead of the new reforms leading to the issuance of the new APCON licenses. This trend has since slowed down. In the mean time, the Nigerian economy has been adjudged the biggest in Africa.

“For various reasons, we have seen the ‘exiting’ and realignment of affiliations. Unlike the 90’s it appears that affiliation is not a guarantee for winning businesses. Our competition today is hydra-headed; it’s both local and global,” he noted.