The outdoor sectoral group within the advertising industry has been having it rough in the last one decade , suffering from one form of collective or individual collateral damage . And for many stakeholders in the industry , the crisis started with the Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency ( LASAA ) coming into the scene , claiming it wanted to sanitise the sector . And when the body , which has become the most powerful regulatory agency in Nigeria completed its task , many outdoor advertising practitioners were out from their source of livelihood and profession . Till d a t e , m a n y p ra c t i t i o n e rs h a v e n o t recovered from t h at L A SAA ' s onslaught . |
Government careless about our challenges and keep putting pressure on us , not minding the challenges we are facing as businessmen . Outdoor practitioners are not operating in isolation but within the same h a rs h e c o n o m i c e nv i ro n m e n t a n d government appears not to be concerned about our plight ,” he said .
But it seems LASAA is not done with its onslaught on the outdoor practitioners if the latest news milling is anything to go by . There are claims that the state outdoor regulator is planning to go into partnership
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President of OAAN was not outspoken , as he was conscious claiming that the information is still at the realm of rumour . However , his members who spoke are saying it is true , as it has gone beyond the realm of rumour . It was learnt that many of the practitioners are jittery because the bulk of their business is in Lagos as most advertising spend about 60 per cent of what clients pay are domicile in Lagos . So losing the Lagos market would hit the practitioners badly , reasons they are not taking the information lightly , though said to be in the realm of rumour according to the president . |
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When many of them were still g r a p p l i n g t o recover from t h e L A S A A intervention , other states in Nigeria decided t o c o p y t h e LASAA model , w i t h n o v a r i a t i o n d e s p i t e t h e e n v i r o n m e n t d i f f e r s . T h i s further inflicted another round of pains on the practitioners . The campaign o f m a n y o u t d o o r practitioners is t h a t t h e injustice being melted to them b y s t a t e r e g u l a t o r y agencies should be reversed or amended . |
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They have not yet a c h i eved any concrete success even with the i n t e r v e n t i o n b y t h e A d v e r t i s i n g Practitioners Council of Nigeria ( APCON ) under the chairmanship of Lolu Akinwunmi . Despite they are still crying , they were hit by another offensive , when some of the practitioners claimed that LASAA refused to comply with the gentleman agreement reached with some practitioners during the countdown to the last general election in Nigeria .\
That the sector is having a tough time was revealed recently when the President of Outdoor Advertising Agency of Nigeria ( OAAN ), Babatunde Adedoyin , said the outdoor advertising sector has become endangered species in the country as practitioners contend with regulatory bottlenecks and harsh economy . “ From left , right and front , we are being batched .
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that would see the world biggest outdoor agency take over the functions of LASAA in Lagos , meaning Jean Claude Decaux – a foreign outdoor advertising firm , would play as both practitioner and regulator in the state , which is even not in compliance to the rules of APCON in terms of foreign agencies playing in the Nigerian market .
With this development , there are fears among many outdoor practitioners in Nigeria because if Lagos State should succeed , in no time other states will follow suit just as when LASAA came into the scene . And with Jean Claude Decaux enjoying undue collaboration with the state regulators , many of them would be pushed out of business , leading to not only thousands of job loss but also business packing up .
On this new development , though the
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Nonetheless , if the proposal by LASAA-Jean Claude Decaux scales through , no doubt it would test who has the superior regulatory powers between APCON , a federal government agency and LASAA , a Lagos state agency , in the advertising industry in Nigeria . Before now , there had been some squabble among the two agencies about who should dictate the practice of advertising in Nigeria , especially outdoor advertising , so this might bring back that standoff and probably a final answer considering that the two bodies are managed by governments that belong to the same political party .
Attempts to get the boss of LASAA , Mobolaji Sanusi to comment on the raging issue were not successful . When his mobile line was dialled , it was entering voicemail and he did not reply the text message sent to him .
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Signage vol . 1 No2 7 |