Heads of Advertising Sectoral Group (HASG) has raised alarm on the planned concession of seven roads in Lagos State for out-of-home advertising purposes warning that such move also embarked upon by Kaduna State will create monopoly which is against fair play and will likely scare marketers away.
The HASG told BusinessDay recently that Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency’s (LASAA) insistence on concessioning of seven major roads in the state to certain bidders to own and operate out of home advertising franchises on such roads for 10 years will not only adversely affect government taxes but will cause distress in out of home industry that has over 3,000 employees.
The roads planned for concession in Lagos are Lagos- Badagry Expressway, Ikorodu Road, Mobolaji Bank Anthony Road, Awolowo Road, Western Avenue, and Isheri LASU road.
HASG members fear that the franchisees on the specified roads will fix arbitrary prices for advertisement on the billboards along the roads. And when this happens, marketers who are forced to buy such spaces at expensive rate because a monopolistic market has been created will likely pull their funds to other marketing platforms.
Steve Babaeko, the president of Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), one of the HASG members, said when advertisers look for other options, the government will not only lose tax revenue from out-of-home but the outdoor industry will suffer depletion which will cause it to sack its workforce.
Describing the move by the Lagos regulatory agency as a grave danger, HASG called on the government of Governor Sanwo-Olu to prevail on LASAA to shelf its plan.
Osamede Uwubanmwen, president of Advertising Association of Nigeria, ADVAN, another member of the HASG, said the association which spends about N200 billion on advertising yearly believes in fair play and distaste monopoly.
While appealing to Lagos State government to rescind its decision, he said monopoly makes advertisers to buy advertising spaces at an expensive rate and this compels advertisers to seek alternative ways to reach their consumers.
The bodies also frowned at Kaduna State action of pulling down billboards for LEDs in spite of repeated discussions with the state.
Instead of beautification purposes, HASG said “we have since found out that the whole essence is to allow some favoured business owners, close to the corridors of power in Kaduna State to install their LED platforms in those areas, and have the monopoly of practicing there. This is another form of franchising, and HASG frowns at it”.
The HASG cautioned LASAA and KASUPDA as well as other states that might be planning such concession acts that they will end up creating more problems for the industry.
The group threatened that it will not hesitate to issue a boycott instruction to all advertisers against any state that engages in such infractions as have been committed by LASAA and KASUPDA.
Other members of HASG, including, Experiential Marketers’ Association of Nigeria, EXMAN, led by its president, Tunji Adeyinka; Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), led by its president, Emmanuel Ajufo and Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria, MIPAN led by its Executive Secretary Eki Adzufeh condemned the move to concession the roads and called on the Lagos and Kaduna governments to think again on their initiatives.
