APCON should focus more on enforcement of Nigeria advertising laws, says Yomi Benson
An Integrated Marketing Communications industry practitioner, Yomi Benson, has advised the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) on the need to focus more on the enforcement and implementation of provisions of Nigeria’s advertising laws, if it were to make headway in tackling challenges of indecency and unwholesome advertising practices in the country.
Benson, Managing Director/CEO, Culture Communications Limitted, a frontline creative advertising agency also joined in the growing list of advertising industry stakeholders calling on the federal government to expedite action on the reconstitution of the Governing Council of APCON, the industry’s apex regulatory body.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with MARKETING EDGE in Lagos, the agency boss condemned in strong terms the rising trend recently in illegal exposure of indecent advertisement in the country but regretted that the Council was found wanting in proper enforcement and effective implementation of the advertising Control Act.
According to him, APCON being the apex regulator is fully empowered by law to administer control on advertising in all ramifications, hence the council needed to rise up to the task by stepping up activities, especially in the areas of enforcement and implementation of the laws in order to nip in the bud the excesses and breach of the law by desperate and unscrupulous individuals.
“I am going to be very blunt. If you look at the books, we have enough rules and regulations there to ensure that indecency is not allowed in this industry; but the challenge we have is in implementation and the will to even implement.
“Enforcement too is one of the major problems we have in this country. We have all the laws to make things work well but we don’t implement and we don’t enforce them. That is also the challenge that we have in the advertising industry. We have capable people who are running the association but they need to step up and enforce the rules and the laws and clean up the environment,” he said.
He continued: “For a couple of years now, we do not have an APCON Chairman. Even at the level of AAAN, we have the rules that are supposed to govern our industry. The question is, are we using the rules, are we implementing them? No, we are not. So, that is where we are lagging behind.”
Highlighting on the various challenges impeding on the growth of the industry, the erudite practitioner listed the challenges to include among other things, infrastructure and economic challenges and the dwindling quality of available manpower in the industry.
On the issue of debts in the industry, notably the 120 days credit payment terms by multinational companies in the country, Benson observed that the payment policy was antithetical to the growth aspiration of agency practitioners but added that agencies could only overcome the challenge by ensuring that they have adequate start off capitals before venturing into the business.
He projected that over the period of the next decade, advertising business in Nigeria would witness drastic changes in the mode of practice, pointing out that owing to the rise in the tide of the digital and social media revolution, agency structures would come in smaller nimbler units while the consumer market would be in small clusters.
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