By Oghale Mafuru

As part of strategies to consolidate on existing initiatives to reposition the advertising industry through policy formulations and continuous engagement, the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria, ARCON has announced plans to drive full enforcement of the law this year, to ensure strict adherence to advertising Code of Practice and other regulations instituted by the body.

Speaking exclusively to MARKETING EDGE, the Director General of the apex advertising regulatory agency, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo disclosed that the Advertising Industry Standard of Practice, AISOP will take full effect this year as other industry reforms will also be fully enforced.

He said: “The foundation that was laid in 2022, we will see the results in 2023. For example, we hope that the Advertising Industry Standard of Practice will take full effect in 2023. We also hope that our reforms of ensuring we promote local content in communication materials will also be very strong and compliance will be high. You can imagine the implication of this for the advertising industry. Imagine that all communication is now done in Nigeria. What that means is that we are going to create more jobs, the advertising industry will grow”.

The ARCON DG stated that the regulatory agency will ensure that government agencies employ the services of only registered professionals in line with the new advertising law.

While affirming that a major focus for the regulatory agency this year is to ensure responsible advertising on digital media platforms, Dr Fadolapo stressed that stakeholders’ engagement will be continuous to deepen the knowledge of the law and drive inclusivity.

“Enforcement for me is a continuous thing because there will be violations and as long as there are violations, there will definitely be enforcement. One of the key areas we are looking at in 2023, include the digital media space. You will recall that in recent times, we have made some pronouncements with respect to that space. We are also in court with some of these digital giants too. So we believe strongly that all these will shape the advertising industry in the year 2023,” he said.

According to him, the series of advertising reforms over the last one year heralded a paradigm shift which will position the industry for growth noting that the agency is determined to ensure full compliance of the law this year.

“The advertising industry is getting better. 2022 started with a lot of reforms and we are still pushing through. 2022 is also very important in the history of advertising in Nigeria because we were able to push out our law at the National Assembly which led to the change of name from APCON to ARCON. So, because of that, we were able to improve on our advertising regulatory space in terms of power, function and responsibility.

The advertising regulator who affirmed that the agency will be engaging with other sectors within the advertising business expressed optimism that the recent reforms will further enhance the operations and service delivery of the industry with improved impact on economic development.