There are worries and apprehension in bleeding Nigeria’s Outdoor industry on whether the operator members, especially those whose billboards were dismantled over Lagos International Airport road expansion would be re-allocated sites and allowed to re-build their billboards after the road construction.
This apprehension is coming on the heels of fears, based on unconfirmed information that the road, after construction would formally be concessioned to Jcdecaux, a Paris, France-based outdoor advertising company to install, supervise and maintain outdoor advertising business in the city. It is said that the multinational firm is collaborating with Lagos State on some projects. Sources confirmed the presence of top management of the Jcdecaux at APCON office in Lagos last week but it was not clear what the two parties discussed.
The industry sources who spoke to BusinessDay said that the outdoor operators are not only jittery over the development of Lagos State giving the foreign-based company top choice areas to operate in the state which would likely take away jobs from local operators but the State appears to be ignoring outdoor operators on many matters including further discussion on the health of the industry.
READ ALSO: COVID-19: Elev8media Advertising announces N40m support to offer free advert exposure to Lagos SMEs
Lagos State attracts over 55 per cent including TV, Outdoor, press and radio of about N100 billion annual advertising spend by companies. The industry has sacked over 50 per cent of its staff in the recent time due to economic challenges, cut in advertising budget by clients and stiff laws, the sources said. The outdoor advertising industry is facing a plethora of challenges from regulatory agencies to competition, including multiple taxation and high rates. The recession of 2016/2017 did not help matters as the consequences were severe as the industry had to content with media debt, cut in marketing communication and outright non-renewal of contracts by clients.
In engaging the foreign company, perhaps Lagos State government is leveraging the experience of the foreign company which has operated since 1964 and operates in over 75 countries. On whether there would be compensation from the government for dismantling and re-building the billboards if the existing operators are allowed to come back at the Airport road after road construction since this would definitely come at extra cost, the sources said: “ We expect the government to compensate the billboard owners through tax holiday as it is done in other climes”.
Ordinarily, the government does not compensate operators who were asked to pull down their billboards over road construction as they are given temporary permits given such road expansions. The sources said Optimum Exposures is among those agencies that own billboards on the Airport-Oshodi road. However, pre-paid clients expect the billboard owners to make do of their campaigns at other billboards but the sources said advertisers have discontinued engaging in pre-paid, a situation that has put the industry in dire strain with mounting debt profile.
Daniel Obi
