Why implementation of APCON reform is being delayed-Kankarofi

The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON could not implement its new reformed policies because some of the sectoral bodies that make up the council are yet to make their inputs.

The council Registrar Alhaji Bello Kankarofi said this in an exclusive interview with Marketing Edge, adding that the reform had already been put in place but could not be implemented without the support of the industry players.

According to him, the committee saddled with this responsibility has since concluded its job and has been presenting the draft of the reform to various sectoral groups but many of them are yet to take a stance. “

APCON can’t take decision without the clients, the advertisers, the media buyers, the Broadcast Organisation of Nigeria, the Newspapers proprietors, all the sectoral groups that are involved, including the brand journalists,” he noted.

Kankarofi explained that APCON is only a regulatory body, adding that it is the practitioners themselves that decide what they want while government gives them the backing.

“For two years we were at war but now government has done the right things. They have constituted the council based on the rule of law. Don’t forget we just got a new council in March. We need to talk to everybody to give us their ideas; we could not begin to implement the policies without the sectoral groups it is not going to work,” he said.

However he assured all aggrieved sectors that all efforts to make the reform see the light of the day are being put in place. “Let me give you this assurance that soon all the insinuations will disappear naturally. The APCON Council went through trauma for two years, 18 months battle with some political jobbers who wanted to take over APCON because government made a mistake but it was the same government who rectified the mistake. In a short time the reforms will be implemented,” he said.