Industry Reform: APCON, NBC Turn to EFCC over Operational Recklessness

Raheem Akingbolu

Barely six months after the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), released the Advertising Industry Standard of Practice (AISOP) as a new code of conduct for operators in the Nigerian Marketing Communications industry, the Registrar and Chief Executive of the council, in company of the Director-General of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mallam Balarabe Ilelah, have approached the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, at the EFCC Headquarters in Abuja to join the two bodies to sanitise advertising and media industry.

At the event, both men solicited the support of EFCC in sanitising the media/advertising industry and eliminating the iniquitous activities of some operators in the sector, which have been crippling its development and growth

The DG of NBC stated that the fraudulent activities of some stakeholders and huge advertising debt have generated concerns as these have created operational challenges for the industry.

“Most media houses are crippled operationally as obtaining credit under false pretence and other fraudulent activities of some stakeholders are endangering the growth of the industry,” he stated.

Meanwhile, the APCON Registrar,  had earlier noted that the intervention of the EFCC is strategic to the success of the ongoing industry reforms. He further noted that such intervention would eradicate financial corruption and unethical practices in the industry.

The Registrar seeks the partnership of EFCC to provide financial security for the advertising industry against all forms of financial crimes as these inhibit the growth of the advertising industry.

While reiterating the commission’s zero tolerance to corruption and financial crimes in the country, the chairman of EFCC pledged the commission’s commitment to supporting the advertising industry and indicated that two desk offices would be created in Abuja and Lagos by the commission for the industry intervention.

He enjoined the two agencies (NBC and APCON) to come up with a detailed proposal on the intervention of EFCC including framework and scope of intervention

In the recent code, which was basically a rulebook on the modus operandi on international best practices,  Fadolapo explained that the new practice includes, “engagement policy, how we engage agencies, payment terms, and commission, remuneration, disengagement protocol, returns on advertising investment and measurement, peaceful resolution and other related protocol.”

The APCON Registrar said he was optimistic that with the implementation, Nigeria would be among the most progressive advertising and marketing communication industry across the world. “We hope that the faithful application of the advertising industry reform will not only grow the business of advertising marketing communication but will also create over 100,000 jobs directly and indirectly in the next few months. We are confident the guidelines stand to protect the Nigerian advertising industry and the general public.”

Fadolapo said, “We have restructured our legal team, we are also a parastatals of the Federal Government and so have access to the office of the Attorney General and I believe whatever we need, we will have access to and we will continue to build capacity,” adding, “currently we operate a licensed regime which requires that all Advert agencies are licensed by APCON, we will continually engage the industry to ensure that this is a success.”

However, despite the assurance given by APCON that the initiatives would deepen professionalism, members of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), rejected the new standard of practice and called for review.