ARCON mandates ad bodies to provide N1bn insurance cover for members

The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) has rolled out some guidelines to sanitise the industry. These include a mandate to all advertising sectoral bodies to provide N1 billion indemnity professional insurance cover for their members.

Indemnity is a type of insurance or contractual agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to pay for potential losses or damage caused by another party.

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The sectoral groups include Experiental Marketers of Nigeria (EXMAN), the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Outdoor Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (OAA) and Media Independent Practitioners of Nigeria (MIPAN).

Issuing the guidelines on Tuesday in Lagos while speaking with journalists, Lekan Fadolapo, the director-general of ARCON, said the insurance policy covers professional indemnity for members of their associations as part of the corporate licence requirements.

He said the full implementation of the corporate licence regime will take effect from April 1, 2024.

Another guideline is the implementation of the 45-day contract payment threshold in the advertising industry. He said ARCON was collaborating with the Economic and Finance Crime Commission, National Broadcasting Commission, and other government agencies on the implementation of the 45-day credit threshold in the advertising industry.

According to him, any organisation that offered a payment threshold outside the 45-day credit policy would be tagged as an economic saboteur of the Nigerian advertising industry. “Such organisation will be flagged and reported to other government agencies for further investigation and necessary punitive actions”.

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“Globally, the payment threshold is a policy in the advertising industry. Some stakeholders have been offering Nigerian media and other service providers a 120-day payment circle, thereby impoverishing the Nigerian advertising industry. These same stakeholders prepay foreign media houses operating in Nigeria for media services. Some had insisted on old practices that have led to industry debt and exploitation of media owners. We can no longer allow this to continue,” he said.