Repositioning business in a challenging economy will top Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria, OAAN conference this weekend. This topic is perhaps informed by operational challenges businesses in Nigeria are going through especially in the last few years due to government policies and environmental difficulties.
In the recent time, Nigerian companies have faced deeper burden of running their businesses and payment of overhead cost principally on account of poor infrastructure and government unfriendly policies that have eroded business margins.
The situation seems to have gotten bad for most companies especially giving the high inflation environment that has eaten deep into consumers’ purse.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Income and Expenditure approach at 2010 purchaser’s values show that consumption expenditure of households has been declining at varying pace. This has a far reaching implication for these companies.
This development has forced many companies to rejig their marketing strategies by cutting budget which has affected advertising business including outdoor.
The President of OAAN, Tunde Adedoyin, said in a statement that this year’s AGM is strategic because it will offer an opportunity for robust deliberation with a view to finding lasting solution to the facing the outdoor industry in Nigeria.
He said: “There are number of issues that are very strategic to the future of the industry that are primed for consideration at the meeting. For example, reviews of regulations guiding the body, adoption and upgrade of new members and more importantly, setting the pace for the future of the profession in Nigeria.”
The AGM is coming at a critical time for the outdoor industry, which has in the last four years struggled for growth as a result of issues like multiple taxation, over-regulation, weak government policies among other challenges. More vexing has been the refusal of the Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency (LASAA), the state outdoor regulatory agency, to pay debts owed the association, which runs into billions of Naira, for jobs executed for the agency during the 2015 election.
This has created a huge liquidity problem that has driven many agencies to the edge, and more notably led to a situation where outdoor services have been over-priced and made unattractive to many advertisers.
A statement signed by the, Femi Ogala, General Secretary of the association said in the statement that the theme for this year’s AGM is ‘’Future of OOH in Nigeria: Debt, Ethics and Best Practices”. The conference will hold on June 21, 2019 at Park Inn By Radisson, Kuto, Abeokuta, Ogun State with Jude Odia, Chief Operating Officer at Media Perspectives Ltd, as lead speaker.
Daniel Obi
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