Nigeria ad spend on the decline, now N100bn annually, says Daily Times Boss
Nigeria’s total spending on advertising in the past few years has reduced drastically, hovering around N100 billion annually.
This was revealed recently by the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of Daily Times newspaper, Aliu Akoshile, while speaking during a courtesy visit by combined delegates from Advertising Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria (APCON) and Advertising Practitioners’ Association, Abuja Chapter (APAAC) at the newspaper’s Abuja Corporate Office.
Nigeria’s advertising revenue streams include government agencies, the private sector and individuals. Akosile said the reduction in the overall revenue expenditure on advertising was caused by the various challenges in a depressed economy, which he said made government and investors spend less on advertising, a development he said was in the wrong direction as the right thing would have been to spend more on advertising, as a way of boosting the economy.
“Spending on advertising in Nigeria has reduced over the years and this is the outcome of a depressed economy. Therefore what we have now is about N100 billion annually on advertising.
But that shouldn’t be the case. Under a depressed economy, you are supposed to spend more on advertising so that people are enlightened on what opportunities are available for them to explore.
“It is wrong to reduce advertising because of economic realities and challenges because if you withdraw, you kill your business which again, impacts on the overall economy wellbeing of the nation,” Akoshile stated.
He urged advertising practitioners and regulators to be more proactive in harnessing advert in order to curtail the rate at which non professionals proliferate the industry.
“Advertising professionals and regulators of the industry should do more because less than 70 percent of adverts revenue is collected by licensed advert agencies while the rest go through individual hands directly to the publishers and other owners of advertising outlets.
“On daily basis, non licensed individuals collect adverts and hand them over to media organisations to either publish or broadcast. The revenue on such adverts do not pass through advert regulatory bodies and are therefore not accounted for by the industry,” he said.
Earlier, Akoshile while thanking APAAC and APCON for the courtesy visit informed them that Daily Times is undergoing serious rebranding in order to reclaim its position as the number one media heritage in Africa.
He promised them that the management of Daily Times was prepared to partner with all strategic stakeholders in the media and advertising industries especially APAAC and APCON, saying the two bodies are indispensable for any serious media company in Nigeria.
In her remark, Mercy Eluemuno of Minepace Limited, a Public Relations and Advertising agency, applauded Daily Times management for accepting to host the meeting with APAAC and APCON, adding that it was very clear from the MD’s address that the media company is serious about its reorganisation and rebranding plans.
She said that no company could grow and achieve its objectives if it did not advertise its goods and services, adding that “Repositioning was very important in achieving set goals”, promising that the two bodies would set up a committee to work with Daily Times.
Also speaking, Ahmed Yelwa, Head of Abuja Zonal operations, APCON, hailed the proposed partnership with Daily Times, saying it was coming at the right time, promising that the Council would support the transformation going on in the heritage company.
Apart from Aliu Akoshile, others on the side of Daily Times include its Managing Editor, Bonaventure Melah, Executive Assistant on Strategy and Production, Pius Adebayo ,and Head of Marketing Department, Gbenga Adeosun, while APCON and APAAC were represented by Ahmed Yelwa, Mercy Eluemuno, David Shodeinde, Patience Martin and Sofiat Yusuf.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Comment
No comments found.