Reprieve For Outdoor Operators in Lagos
There are strong indications that the lingering face-off between Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) and Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) may come to an end soon as the management of LASAA has finally opened the door for negotiations between the two outfits.
Mr. Gbolahan Dixon, LASAA’s Registrar gave the hint on this new development at the recently held 10th OAAN Poster Awards in Lagos. Gbolahan affirmed that both parties are already holding meetings and will continue to deliberate until a lasting solution is found to the crisis at hand.
The first meeting which held several weeks ago was a clear departure from the old atmosphere of acrimony and lack of trust between regulatory agency and aggrieved members OAAN as both parties agreed that it was time to turn a new page in their relationship for the interest of the industry.
Gbolahan affirmed that LASAA’s Managing Director Mobolaji Sanusi is ready to offer some compromises and bend over backward to accommodate some of OAAN’s complaints with a view to finding a lasting solution. “It is not in the best interest of LASAA to destroy the outdoor industry in Nigeria. That will not be to anybody’s good. The agency accept that there have been some problems and it is commitment to addressing the issue so that the industry can move forward,” LASAA Registrar said at the awards.
He also disclosed that the meeting will resolves some of the contentious issues in the relationship between LASAA and OAAN including matters such as charges for vacant billboards. While this is a welcomed development for billboard owners, some of them have chosen to tread on the path of cautiously optimism given some of the previous experiences they have had in their past relationships with Sanusi.
The rocky relationship between LASAA and OAAN began from the inception of LASAA, when Makanjuola Alabi held sway. The organization which was set up by the Lagos State Government to regulate Outdoor activities in Lagos, was accused of highhandedness and insensitivity to the plight and concerns of OAAN members.
OAAN’s complaints centres on the fact that LASAA’s regulatory demands were too stringent and thus unfavorable to the growth of out-of-home business in Lagos. The outdoor advertising practitioners also frowned at the high cost of licensing and the arbitrariness of LASAA’s billings, which was having a telling effect on their bottom-line as businessmen.
Other issues that OAAN wants addressed are franchising as well as the need for a level playing ground for both government and private sector players. “For example, LAMATA gets outdoor adverts on BRT buses without paying levies. They have become our competitors, yet they are not subjected to the same rules as us. That is not a level playing ground,” one of the OAAN members told MARKETING EDGE, adding that such practice does not conform to global best practices.
“You cannot be a regulator and an operator at the same time,” he said.
The relationship between both bodies however reached a tipping point after the last elections, when the new LASAA management refused to honour the alleged outstanding debt claimed to have been incurred by LASAA during the tenure of former Managing Director Mr. George Noah. It could be recalled that outdoor regulatory agency under its former helmsman gave billboard campaign to some outdoor companies with the promise of netting off the cost on the outdoor companies rent payment to the state government.
As the stalemate persisted, a good number of outdoor agencies have been driven to the edge, with mountains of debt running into hundreds of millions. Some of the agencies practically gone into comatose as they can no longer operate their billboards and thus could not meet their obligations to their clients and staff.
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