AAAN business outlook seminar raises hopes on Nigeria’s economic growth
The year 2020 edition of the annual business outlook seminar of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) came to a grand close on a general optimistic note as various discussants and participants reasoned that Nigeria’s economy was heading hopefully towards a positive turn-around in the foreseeable future.
For the team of discussants at the one-day seminar, their optimism on the economy was based on the recent emerging economic indices from the Federal Government, suggesting that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the country would grow by unprecedented 2.4 percent in the course of the current year.
The seminar which held at the prestigious L’eola Hotels, Maryland in Lagos was well attended, drawing together a convergence of foremost practitioners in advertising, notably among whom were the Group Chairman of STB McCann, Sir Steve Omojafor, erstwhile Managing Director of LTC Advertising, and Mrs. Bola Thomas.
The roll call of attendees at the event included several heads of advertising agencies and other industry stakeholders cutting across Nigeria’s Marketing and Marketing Communications Industry spheres.
The event, which had as its theme “Nigerian Business Environment in the year 2020: Implications for Advertising Agencies”, was critically addressed by various distinguished marketing personalities drawn from across the sectoral groupings namely, the media, clients organisations and management consultancy side.
The keynote Speaker, former Managing Director of Diamond Bank Plc and Senior Partner, Anderson Tax Consultants, Emeka Onwuka took the audience through the latest available demography on economic development in Nigeria, expressing positive hopes that based on currently emerging indices, “things were turning positively favorable for the Nigerian economy”.
According to him, despite the generally perceived downturn in the economy as experienced in 2019, some sectors of the economy continued to record positive growth, especially with regards to agricultural and non-oil sector in general.
He observed that what was most cheering was the general indication that the economy would grow by 2.4 percent in the course of the current year, pointing out that the projected growth would be made possible judging by certain economic policies of government such as among other things, early passage of yearly budget, favorable oil prices and growing activities in the non-oil sector of the economy, especially agriculture.
Speaking also at the event, Olu Akanmu, one of the panelists, and Executive Director at FCMB Plc, observed that irrespective of the emerging economic indices on the economy, Nigeria remained still a very poor country with one out of every two Nigerian living below the poverty line.
He said that based on the current economic realities in the country, what agency business practitioners needed to do was to look within and address their business challenges by changing their business models, and embracing more of emerging digital technology experience for their business to thrive.
In his own remark, the Publisher/CEO, Businessday Newspaper, Frank Aigbogun challenged agency practitioners as experts in the communication enterprise to improve upon their mode of monitoring changes in the marketplace, reshape their business model by improving their relevance to clients so they could be seen more as business partners rather than just service providers.
Earlier in his opening remark, AAAN President, Ikechi Odigbo lamented the various challenges bedeviling the advertising agency business in Nigeria such as constantly shrinking budgets, business fragmentation and what he termed “the promiscuous attitude” of client organisations.
According to the Association boss, Nigeria had everything it takes to emerge as a great nation in terms of population, natural resources and the ecology, adding, however, that in spite of all these, the country continued to lag behind on its potentials while doing business remained a huge challenge in spite of efforts of government.
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