Practitioners at the meeting.
Story by Dili Utomi.
The major heavyweights in the Out-of-Home Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) as well as eggheads within the sector gathered on Thursday at their secretariat to hold their quarterly meeting where members meet to ventilate ideas about solving the very serious issues that seem to perpetually plague the operations within the profession and proffer better engagement style with regulatory agencies in order to cut down on costs and ultimately increase the bottom line.
The president of the association, Mr. Sola Akinsiku opened the occasion with the detailed remarks about the things that are germaine to the development of the profession (advertising on outdoor platforms), the things that must be done to grow their business as well as the various contending issues that he and his executive members seek to tackle in order that the needed leadership could be achieved and that a great legacy could be left for posterity as has been done by previous leaders of the association.
The president of the association, right and the general secretary left .
The meeting which was largely interactive dwelt a lot on the operational challenges and the need to make the practise of Out-of-Home Advertising more professional, more interactive, more engaging and more lucrative in all its ramifications.
The general secretary of the association, Mr. Churchill Nwagwu gave a report of the activities of the association since the coming of this particular executive committee at the end of October 2023. He noted that since the inception of this particular executive committee, various adhoc committees have been set up and functioning.
The general secretary expatiates on the various steps taken to meet with several regulators at the states level and with a ranking Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Enyinnaya Abaribe. The high point of his report is the fact that only 23 members of the 120 strong corporate membership have paid up their mandatory one million naira (₦1,000,000.00) annual due and that this is still a far cry from the expected performance of member associations. The report also included the efforts being made by the OAAN to inaugurate the African Out-of-Home Advertising Association within the nearest future.
The thorny issue of franchising of certain roads to individual companies was greatly buttressed by members and the president of the association seriously warned about the dire implications of any member bidding to hold any kind of franchise on any road in Lagos or in any other city across Nigeria as the case may be as franchising of roads has been shown to breach the anti-monopoly principles in business operations in all its practices.
One of the members quipped in that it has become imperative to consider the street toughs popularly called the area boys as part of the legitimate regulators of the business as a large chunk of their operational costs are channeled towards settling their demands and as practitioners have been left to their fate by the various state governments all over the country.
A keynote address was delivered by Mr. Wole Odubanjo, the chairman of the OAAN Cooperative Multipurpose Society who delivered his address on the topic: Mitigating The Regulatory Injuries In A Challenging Environment. His address attempted to condition the psyche of practitioners to the reality that state agencies are formed to satisfy the reasons why they were created by each state government. The multiplicity of taxes on Out-of-Home Advertising business through various guises was touched by the speaker and he admonished practitioners to seek the cost cutting avenues and the high yielding strategies that will not only make their business to meet the bottom line, but also to flourish like any other business.
Mr. Odubanjo that the various multifaceted factors militating against the practice of the profession added to the unfair perception of the various state governments of the business as a cash cow can be surmounted given a clear and deliberate attempt by practitioners to cut all leakages and prudently manage resources.
The participatory nature of of the meeting allowed members to vent on the various frustrating experiences that are being encountered- legitimate and largely illegitimate while carrying out their duties. The president though noted that even though the operational environment in the industry in arduous, the business is one that is worth doing and as the chairman of the board of trustees of the association, Mr. Charles Chijide said “any modern society without the presence of Out-of-Home Advertising theirin is dead”.
The president of the association, Mr. Akinsiku also used the opportunity to notify the members that steps towards bringing a chartered status to the practice of the profession is very much in the works and that this will not in any way affect the statutory functions of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON).
For advert placements and more information, please call us on 08027590195, 08035721540 or email us on [email protected] or send us messages on x @dn_utomi or on
