Yinka Adepoju, director-general, Oyo State Signage and Advertisement Agency (OYSAA), has assessed the performance of the agency in the last one year of its operations and says the state is on its way to achieving environmental standards and best practices, a trend other states are already emulating.
“In our one year of existence as a regulatory agency, we have successfully cleaned up the major routes in Ibadan, ditto Oyo and Ogbomoso, by removing sub-standard, dilapidated, dangerously and badly positioned billboards. These cities are now clean, very calm and wearing new looks,” he said in his one year report.
According to him, the agency hopes to replicate this achievement in other major towns of the state, especially now that the state government has approved for the agency new set of operational equipment. “This development has positively enhanced our performance level,” he said.
As part of what the agency achieved within the short space include registration of outdoor practitioners in line with agreed categories; regularisation of first-party and third-party structures and removal of illegal boards and structures; creating an outdoor advertisement environment of a world-class standard as billboards are now environment friendly in the state, and effective sensitisation of the industry players and the public.
He further said the agency had within the one year created a well-defined database with records of every signage and other advertisement structures in the state.
Going forward, Adepoju said in its PPP initiative areas being considered were: provision of solar powered street light poles, construction of ultra modern bus shelters (bus stops) and installation of advert based street directional signs and house numbering exercise.
