APCON Cracks Down on Unlicensed Advertising Practitioners

• APCON Cracks Down on Unlicensed Advertising Practitioners

The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria has said it has commenced action against illegal practitioners and unlicensed organisations infiltrating the outdoor advertising industry in the country.

The council said in a statement that the enforcement, which involves the pulling down of all illegal advertising hoardings in Lagos and other parts of the country, commenced some months ago and had moved to military cantonments and police barracks across the country.

The statement added that military establishments had demanded a month’s notice for those who owned advertising hoardings within their barracks to secure all the necessary documentation from their sectoral body, the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria.

Because the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency does not regulate out-of-home advertising within military and police establishments, APCON said, “Most of the illegal practitioners and unlicensed organisations have taken advantage of this to operate within these areas unchecked.

“But this could not have happened without the connivance of the Media Independent Practitioners of Nigeria member-organisations, hence APCON’s decision to write the body. MIPAN, therefore, has been cautioned to desist from patronising unlicensed organisations as well as non-practitioners.”

APCON further stated that it had on October 12, 2016 written a letter entitled: ‘Practice of non-licensed persons and companies’, signed by its Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Alhaji Garba Kankarofi, to MIPAN’s President, Dr. Ken Onyeali-Ikpe.

The letter read in part, “We wish to bring to your attention the practice by some of your member-companies who engage the services of non-registered/licensed persons and organisations and the purchase of advertising media space/airtime from such unregistered/unlicensed persons and organisations.