APCON puts media debt at N2.1 billion
The Advertising Practitioner Council of Nigeria (APCON) has put the media debt at N2.1 billion.
Assistant Director, Operations, APCON Mr. Joe-Eugene Onuorah, revealed this in a paper presentation titled: “The Role of APCON in enforcing advert revenue generation and payments,” at a stakeholders forum organized by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) for advertising and broadcasting practitioners on its plans for Digital Switch Over (DSO) with the theme: “NBC DSO Roadmap Series” at Sheraton Hotels, Ikeja, Lagos.
APCON, had in its bid to intervene in the huge debt owed media organisations, set up a Special Committee on Media Debts Issue (ASCOMDI) in 2007, with members drawn from the major sectoral associations, namely, ADVAN, AAAN, BON, MIPAN, OAAN and NPAN. This committee was chaired by a broadcasting veteran and Fellow of the advertising profession, Alhaji Ayodele Sulaiman.
Onuorah revealed that the committee worked for almost two years, considering and clarifying memoranda received from various sectoral groups, claims of debts owed them submitted by various media houses and other representations on the media debts issue.
According to him, “It then submitted a report, which summary showed that: reconciled total debt owed media was N1.2 billion, a far cry from the humongous figures bandied about and used as weapon of blackmail.
“A substantial portion of this debt was traced to organizations which do not belong to AAAN or any other sectoral association that make up the organized sector of the advertising industry,” he said.
Onuorah added: “Some of the debt claims could not be verified or authenticated because the claimant media houses could not produce credible records of the transactions from which the claimed debts arose. In some other instances, evidence of payments of some of the claimed debts were produced by the alleged debtor but the media did not have records of such payments.”
In addition, Onuorah said most of the media organizations provided poor information and data base to access business histories, displayed lack of knowledge about advert placement, content and deliverables and poor framework for continuity in the face of frequent personnel changes, structural and professional deficiencies and inadequate attention to details, and general apathy, suspicion and distrust.
He explained that attempts at various times in the past to evolve and enforce similar credit policy in Nigeria have failed essentially due to pervasive distrust and disrespect among players in the advertising and media industry which has also made the system of joint industry committee ineffective in the country.
He lamented that a huge debt subsequently accumulated in the advertising industry, a large chunk of which was alleged to be owed the media by advertising agencies. The situation became so rancorous that in some instances, some media organizations began to insist on prepayment for exposure. This aberration had the potentials to kill the advertising business in Nigeria and bring advertising professionals into disrepute.
The then Chairman of APCON, Chris Doghudje, said the findings of ASCOMDI revealed that the industry debt as at 2006 was a whopping N83. 2 million. He further added that the committee clearly established that the high percentage of the debts did not emanate from the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) and Media Independent Association of Nigeria (MIPAN), rather, were traced to Independent Producers/Marketers and Direct Media Buyers.
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