Salami, former EXMAN President decries FG’s inaction over APCON Council
The immediate past President of the Experiential Marketing Association of Nigeria (EXMAN), Kehinde Salami, has risen in strong condemnation of the Federal Government over its perceived insensitivity and inaction towards re-constituting the governing council of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON).
Salami, who is Managing Director/CEO, Ideas House Communications Limited, is particularly irked by the ignorance and lack of understanding so far exhibited by the Lai Mohammed led Federal Information Ministry to the place and importance of marketing communications as a crucial sector to the development and growth of any serious economy.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with MARKETING EDGE in Lagos, the agency boss lamented that for close to five years running, APCON, advertising industry’s apex regulatory organ, existed with no governing council to direct its affairs, describing the development as “shameful and absolutely ridiculous”.
“It’s most unfortunate the kind of country that we are in. How can you have a big network, a big contributor to the Nigerian economy, the marketing communications industry, and till date there is no council? This is going to 5 years now; it is absolutely ridiculous and unheard-of.”
He continued: “I wonder if the minister even knows what APCON means and what it stands for, and even if it exists with laws guiding it. He’d made a blunder during the first four years. I expected him, having been sworn in for over 4 months, to have done something about it and put in place the vehicle that could ensure us getting back to our rightful place.
“He has neither done nor said anything. I am highly disappointed, and I do hope that one day he would realise the damage that his inability to constitute a council is causing the entire marketing communications industry. We did excuse him in the last four years, but we would not excuse him in this current term.”
Taking a critical assessment of growth performance indices across the Integrated Marketing Communications sector, especially in the period of third quarter of the business year 2019, the former EXMAN boss observed that the industry had exhibited “good outlook” more especially in areas covering the experiential, advertising, creative services and digital fields.
According to him, the competitions currently being witnessed across the sectors was a lot more robust and well defined, adding that brands were offering a market share within a highly competitive market space.
On whether or not the general economy had impacted positively on the business developments across the industry, the agency boss said: “I think you have to define your own rules For me, I don’t grow with the economic indices of Nigeria; if I do then I will be the most miserable person on the face of the earth.”
He added: “I grow up with my own personal expectations and my own indices, and these have been very positive for me. I believe your role as a CEO is to redefine the rules, and you define it in a way that it will favour you and position you appropriately.”
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Comment
No comments found.