The President, Out -of- Home Advertising Association of Nigeria; OAAN, Mr. Sola Akinsiku has reiterated the determination of the new leadership of the Association to reposition the sector through initiatives to enhance professionalism and skills development.
He stated this during a chat with Brand Visibility at the Annual National Advertising Conference (NAC) held in Abuja, recently.
Akinsiku who became the President of 0AAN at the 38th Annual General Meeting held in Asaba in October, 2023 said the new leadership is working to ensure that only men and women of integrity, that are skillful, professionals are in the advertising sub sector.
“Also we want to engage government the more. Most times we have found out that people who are regulating the industry do not know anything about the industry.
“It is not the billboard or the billboard structures that bring in money; it is a function of the clients, it’s a function of the advertisers and if the advertiser is not advertising because of the problems of the industry, then Out of Home Advertising Practitioners will not have money and government expectations may not be met.
“We must constantly engage them, so that government that is expecting so much from our industry, not only in terms of compliance with regulation, but also in terms of revenue generation must listen to us.
“I think the third thing we are also going to do is to invest more in training, knowledge acquisition, capacity building for our members and even for our clients; they also need to understand us.
“All stakeholders must appreciate the contribution of out- of- home advertising to the national GDP because we are employers of labour.”
Pointing out the importance of gender equality; the President revealed plans to increase women participation in the sector.
“We inherited this, but we are promoting it and that is giving the women in out –of- home advertising a voice. Promoting them, encouraging them to come forward, to play a role in growing not only the industry, but the out of home business. That’s why we have Women in Out -of- Home Advertising in Nigeria (WOHAN),” he explained.
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