Wednesday 7 October 2020

LAI MOHAMMED DIRECTS APCON, NBC TO SANITISE THE MEDIA INDUSTRY.


The Advertising Practitioners Council Of Nigeria (APCON) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the two government agencies regulating advertising practice and the broadcast media have agreed to collaborate in ensuring the resolution of the age-long industry debt, adherence to advertising code among other critical industry issues. This was part of the agreement reached during the courtesy visit of APCON management to the leadership of NBC.
The APCON Registrar/Chief Executive, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo recently met with the Acting Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, Professor Armstrong Idachaba to seek collaboration and promote policies that will improve the advertising industry and strengthen intersectoral relationship.
The APCON Registrar hinted on the plan by APCON to develop a new business framework and Standard Operating Procedure for the advertising industry. He stated that the business framework will be comprehensive and will address critical industry concerns which include industry debt, payment policy, inter and intra sectoral relationships among other issues.
The APCON Registrar stated that NBC is expected to make substantial input and adequately participate in the formulation of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the industry. While the SOP will require stakeholders' participation, the APCON Registrar sought the mutual collaboration of NBC as a government regulatory agency to support and ensure compliance. He also solicited the support of NBC in ensuring that all broadcast media organisations comply and enforce the advertising code.
The APCON Registrar noted that the visit is in line with the directive of the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, requesting that all agencies regulating the advertising and media industry should collaborate and seek solution to the age-long media debt.
The Acting Director General of NBC, Professor Armstrong Idachaba expressed delight at the call for collaboration by APCON. He reaffirmed the commitment of NBC to partner with APCON in every area of interest that will improve the long-standing relationship and the respective mandate of the two government agencies.
He assured the APCON Registrar on the support and participation of NBC in the formulation and implementation of the SOP. He further sought the support of the APCON Registrar on Zero Debt Tolerance policy of the broadcast media and the revised broadcast code.
The two regulatory agencies agreed to sign a MOU and work together to promote a healthier business environment for all stakeholders.

Tuesday 6 October 2020

ADVAN Executives visit APCON

 (L- R) Mr. Gerald Osugo, Executive Council Member, ADVAN, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo, Registrar/Chief Executive, APCON, Mrs Bunmi Adeniba, Ag. President   ADVAN and Mrs Ijedi Iyoha, Deputy Director, Regulations, APCON, during a visit to the Concil by Executives of ADVAN on Tuesday, 6th of October,
2020.

Wednesday 30 September 2020

APCON REGISTRAR VISIT SENATOR DANLADI ABDULLAHI SANKARA

 (L) The Registrar/Chief Executive of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo, with Chairman, Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation, Dist. Senator, Danladi, Abdullahi, Sankara during the former's visit to the National Assembly recently.

Tuesday 29 September 2020

MIPAN PAYS APCON A COURTESY CALL

L-R: Mr.Henry Onoruwa, Publicity Secretary, MIPAN, Mr.Femi Adelusi, President, MIPAN, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo, Registrar/Chief Executive, APCON, Mr. Eki Adzufeh, Executive Secretary, MIPAN, and Mr. Ayo Kupoluyi, Chairman Media Liaison, during the courtesy visit of MIPAN Executives to APCON HOUSE on September 24, 2020.

APCON/KSUBLA PARTNER TO SANITIZE OUTDOOR ADVERTISING IN KANO.

As part of its commitment to deepen its relationship with key stakeholders in the Advertising Industry, the Registrar/Chief Executive of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo paid a courtesy call on the Director General, Kano State Urban Beautification and Landscaping Agency, Alhaji Abdallah T. Ahmed recently. The APCON Registrar said that his visit was to explore areas of common interest for greater synergy between the two regulatory agencies. He stated that the primary responsibility of APCON is to ensure Advertising compliance with global best practices and ethical standards in order to resolve common challenges bedevilling the sector. “We seek effective collaboration and partnership with all stakeholders for the establishment of sound ethics and professionalism in the Integrated Marketing Communications Industry”. He pledged APCON’s commitment to collaborate with KSUBLA in order to harmonise all areas of mutual interests to guard against unethical practice. “It is pertinent to point out that this bold initiative if taken seriously, will in no small measure, create an avenue to generate more revenue for the State” Fadolapo said. Responding, the DG, Alhaji Abdallah Ahmed seized the opportunity to congratulate Dr. Fadolapo on his appointment as the Registrar/Chief Executive of the Apex Regulatory Body. He expressed his appreciation to the Registrar for making out time from his busy schedule to pay the Agency a visit. He assured the APCON team of his commitment and full-fledged support to work closely and assiduously to sanitize the business of Advertising in the State by getting rid of charlatans. “It is our desire to continue working to strengthen the partnership between APCON and our Agency. For this reason, we have planned a general enforcement on all illegal structures and will ensure that, going forward, those who are not APCON certified will not be allowed to practice Advertising in the State.” The DG concluded his remarks by once again reiterating the commitment of his Agency to sustain the existing excellent relationship with APCON.

Wednesday 23 September 2020

WITH QUALITY REFORMS, APCON WILL CREATE 5, 000 JOBS


Dr. Olalekan Olumuyiwa Fadolapo is the Registrar/CEO of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON). He is the fourth registrar of the regulatory body. Until his appointment, Fadolapo, a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and holder of a Ph.D Degree in Marketing with specialisation in marketing communications, was the Executive Secretary of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN). He spoke with GREGORY AUSTIN NWAKUNOR his vision for the body.

 

At what point did you meet APCON and where are you taking the body?

The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) I met was without a substantive registrar and the entire industry was clamouring for a change — not a change in the management, but a change in the way and manner things were done. I met an industry that was yearning for implementation of advertising industry reforms.

 

Your vision for APCON?

I see an APCON that plays the role of an industry regulator — not regulating to strangulate or regulating to kill, but a regulator that is there for the stakeholders and players in the industry. My vision of APCON is that of a regulator that will provide a healthy environment for all competitors within the industry. An APCON that is closer to the people, players, practitioners and stakeholders, that is, the advertising community.

 

What was the state of regulation before you came in?

Fortunately, I was the secretary of the Advertising Industry Reform Committee that was set up some years ago. We took a look at the industry, found the challenges that the industry was facing. So, we came up with so many things. We looked at them vis-a vis other professions in Nigeria and the global practice — the best business practices. It may interest you to know that in other countries, there is a standard operating framework that guides the relationship of every stakeholder in the industry: the client and agency, and between the agency and the vendors. But in Nigeria, we do not have anything we can hold on to. So, we are looking at a new APCON that has a standard operating manual for the entire advertising industry, even in the issue of contract and payment policy. These are some of the issues we are going to look into. For now, I’m consulting. I’m talking to all the sectoral groups. Asking them: ‘What are the major challenges you want us to address?’ All this, put together, will form our new operating manual.

 

How soon will this be?

Well, we would take the remaining part of this year to take a detailed look at it. So many things have changed between the last time the industry reform was done and now. For example, the new government policy on ease of doing business, you also need to take that into consideration. The Company And Allied Matters Act (CAMA) have been amended, you need to take that into consideration as well. For you to apply for corporate licence before, you needed to be a company with a minimum of two shareholders. The amended Company And Allied Matters Act said it is one shareholder. There is also a provision for liability partnership, which was not there before. We are looking at the new provision of CAMA and how we are going to situate our own industry reform into this and how we are going to make it better. Let me tell you this, if we start this, the advertising industry can create 5,000 jobs immediately and that is part of government’s policy: job creation. You can quote me on this that if we implement the APCON reform, we will create 5,000 jobs.

 

In what ways has APCON carried along all the stakeholders in the discharge of its mandate over the years?

Over the years, there has been a council with a representation of all the sectoral groups. Now that there is no council, what I am doing is consulting with all the groups and I’m calling them up. We will be having a meeting, which will be more like my own consultative body, because we are not going to take any decision that will impact their business, negatively.

Looking at the emergence of social media, and suddenly, offensive adverts are becoming the norm, how will you rate the performance of Advertising Standards Panel (ASP) over the years?

You see, the thing is this; do not forget that for years, APCON did not have a council. Neither did it have a registrar. I’m not holding brief, but I am saying that some of these things might be responsible for this. Social media caught APCON unawares like many other government agencies. Some countries are just developing regulation for social media, this year. Now, the challenge is, let us even define the social media players and social media space owners. They are not practitioners; they are just media space owners. Look at Linda Ikeji, for example, she is just a social media space owner, she is a blogger. There are digital creative agencies. Those are the people that do creative things that are exposed on those social media space. Now, we can only regulate the digital creative agencies or the digital buying agencies. We cannot regulate the digital space owners. But what are we going to do? We need to engage the social media space owners. We are going to identify and take a pitch to them. We will not engage them in warfare because we want to regulate. We will sit everybody down and ask questions, we will plead with them. It is going to be a win-win situation. It’s not because we have the Federal might behind us. What we want to do is to sit down with each and every one and discuss where the infractions are coming from.

 

For somebody who is just assuming the office of chief executive of APCON, how are you going to effect a prompt inauguration of the council?

First, you know, it’s a step at a time. Before now, we didn’t have a registrar and also, we didn’t have a council. The government had magnanimously appointed a registrar for APCON. We believe that the next step would be to appoint.

 

The second is that there is no vacuum in government, and the fact that we did not have a council, is not an excuse for us not to succeed. Now, if you check the same APCON law, we have a supervising minister, and the same law states that even when the council makes a decision, they still need to get back to the supervising minister, and in the absence of a council, the minister shall act. So, it is a function of us putting our proposal together and presenting to the minister. Instead of the council doing this, the management will present our proposal to the minister and get necessary approval. That is what is in the law. However, I am sure it’s also a top priority for the government, but the absence of the council is not enough to justify our failure.

Another issue in the industry is preference for foreign agencies to handle campaigns at the expense of local players. What do you think APCON can do, especially in the promotion of local content?

We are going to review the local content law of Nigeria and see where they can situate our own proposal there. Don’t forget that currently, the APCON law states that any company that is to operate here, Nigerians must own 75 per cent of the shares. We are going to look at that local content law and see ways we could get empowerment from it. We are going to look at how we can collaborate. We would send a letter to all of them. If your agreement before flouts the APCON law, between now and January, clean it up, so that by January next year, APCON will go out as inspectors to all the agencies with foreign affiliation.

 

What is the state of the media debt?

Several years ago, a Special Committee on Media Debts Issue (ACOMDI) was set up. Members of the committee were drawn from the major sectoral associations, namely ADVAN, AAAN, BON, MIPAN, OAAN and NPAN. I served in that committee. The media houses were requested to bring their statement of accounts because the thing was more to reconcile the debts. At the end of the day, most of the media houses did not respond because of business relationships with the agencies of the parties involved. The people that responded also had so many reconciliatory issues. The issue is also coming up again. I have been meeting with the Director General of NBC, we are the two regulatory bodies involved in this, and we both agreed that going forward, we would have zero tolerance for industry debt, and that is where our standard of practice will come. We will also define business relationship and what is classified as debt. Now, if any organisation owes a media house, and it is confirmed that they are not paying or have been paid but are not remitting, we would take a decision. NBC and APCON will make a pronouncement. NBC issues licence to the media house, while APCON issues licence to the advertising agencies, so as their regulators, we have resolved to come in and ensure we bridge this gap and to ensure we resolve this issue and give you the permanent solution.

Thursday 17 September 2020

APCON TO COLLABORATE WITH NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR LEGISLATIVE AND DEMOCRATIC STUDIES (NILDS) ON LEGISLATIVE BRANDING

The Registrar /Chief Executive of APCON, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo led a delegation from APCON and Brandmark Communications Limited to pay a courtesy call to the Director General, Prof. Abubakar O. Suleiman and Management of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS). The visit was to review the extent of progress made on the proposed collaboration by the two federal government agencies to further deepen democracy in Nigeria and legislative branding.

Other areas of mutual interest covered in their discussion includes re-branding and Integrated Marketing Communications support for the legislative arm of the government through the institute, IMC training and education etc.

In his address, the Director General, Prof. Abubakar Suleiman stated that NILDS is a capacity building and think tank organ for legislators in Nigeria and indeed the ECOWAS sub-region and beyond. He noted that the expansion of the mandate of the Institute has made it necessary for the institute to collaborate with Civil Society Organisations and other arms of government to further deepen democracy in the country.

Dr. Fadolapo while expressing his thanks to the Director General, Prof. Suleiman, noted the importance of the legislative arm of the government and the efforts of the Federal Government in establishing a positive and distinct reputation for trustworthiness and a positive set of values for all government arms and agencies. The Registrar assured the Director General that APCON will do its best in providing IMC support to the institute and the legislative arm of the government.

The two institutions are currently working on an MOU and framework to define the scope and areas of mutual interest.

In attendance at the meeting were Head, Abuja Zonal Operations, APCON, Mallam Ahmed Yelwa, Head of Legal and Executive Assistant to the Registrar/Chief Executive, Mr. Chukwudi Ezeaba, Mr. Tunde Ashaolu and Mr. Chidiebere Onwumere both of Brandmark Communications Limited for APCON and Director, Special Duties,  Dr. Adeyemi Fajingbesi, Director, Democratic Studies, Dr. Adewale Aderemi, Head, Bills and Legislative Drafting, Professor Yusuf Arowosaye, Acting Director, Training and International Cooperation, Hajia Amina Bibi-Farouk and Special Assistant to the DG on Administration, Alhaji Sarafadeen Alabelewe for NILDS.