Nigeria’s advertising regulator, the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), has informed bloggers and skit makers to seek its approval before advertising any product or service online.
According to the circular which was signed by its Director-General, Olalekan Fadolapo, ARCON noted that the new directive is in line with the provisions of the Nigerian Code of Advertising Practice and the ARCON Act No. 23 of 2022.
ARCON added that the agency will not shy away from enforcing the law by sanctioning and prosecuting anyone caught violating the act.
Investors King understands that the new directive was a result of several complaints that the regulatory agency received regarding unregulated advertisements, advertising, and marketing communications activities of skit makers, comedians, influencers, content creators/producers, bloggers, and vloggers on social media platforms.
The circular partly read, “Most of the advertisements exposed by this group are not only unethical with unverified claims and misinformation, but also in violation of the Nigerian Code of Advertising Practice”.
“By this public notice, brand owners, digital agencies, secondary digital media space owners (i.e. bloggers, vloggers, influencers, comedians, skit makers…are advised to obtain pre-exposure approval of all advertisements, advertising, and marketing communications in accordance with the Nigerian Code”.
“ARCON will take all necessary actions including sanctions and prosecution of violators of the provisions of the Act to ensure compliance.”
It could be recalled that in October 2022, ARCON filed a N30 billion lawsuit against Meta, the mother company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. The agency claimed that the company should be sanctioned for the “violation of the advertising laws and loss of revenue as a result of Meta’s continued exposure of unapproved adverts on its platforms.”
Meanwhile, Investors King expects skit makers, bloggers, and vloggers among others to express their displeasure with the new directive largely perceived as a bottleneck to small businesses. Also, the implementation of the policy could pose a difficult task for the advertising regulatory agency due to the decentralised nature of social media.
