OoH Advertisement: Outrage, concerns over ‘exorbitant’ political campaign levies

• Practitioners argue high cost of permit fee may imperil business

STAKEHOLDERS in Nigeria’s advertising industry are expressing concerns over what they described as exorbitant permit fees, being imposed on political campaigns by some state governments, warning such action might imperil the nation’s  democracy and stifle the growth of advertising business in the country.

For instance, besides the mandatory levies being charged Out- of-Home advertising practitioners, as operation fees, some  state governments, through their signage and advertisement agencies, are beginning to introduce permit levies, ranging from N150million to N200million, before a candidate’s signages will be allowed in such states.

For instance, in Enugu, the sum of N150m must be paid before a candidate is given the right to put up campaign billboards in the state: while Abia State’s demand is as high as N200million for presidential campaign advert fee, and N150m for governorship.

Others are: Kogi State: N150million levy for Presidential candidates; Cross River, N150million, Presidential billboard permit, and N100million for governorship; Rivers State, N75million for Presidential political campaign, among others.

Going by the development, a rough estimate put a presidential candidate’s spend, only on  billboards and signages,  across the country at over N3.5billion, at N100million per state; and more than N7billion at N150million; despite a campaign ceiling of N10billion allowed by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Interestingly, practitioners in the OoH advertising sector, in exclusive chats with  the Nigerian Tribune, have not only condemned the levies, but warned that such decision might stifle opposition, put the nation’s democracy in danger and imperil the business.

Besides, they believed the OoH practice would be worse of;  since the volume of campaigns, usually seen during this period, might shrink, considerably.

Chairman, Marketing Media Group Limited, Dr. Theodore Ekechi, wondered why a new set of rules is being introduced at this period, when advertising in Nigeria is already regulated by government, in consultation with local governments.

According to him, there are regulatory frameworks, put in place by the Federal Ministry of Works, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), the state governments and even local governments.

“As an OoH practitioner, you don’t just put up adverts in Nigeria. Before you do, you must have gotten clearances from relevant regulatory agencies. Interestingly, practitioners are already being guided by the existing framework. So why this special levy on political message?

The Marketing Media Group boss also wondered what would make a political message attract a special levy, while same can not be said of product adverts or any other categories of ads.

“For instance, how is political messaging different from the one put up by NGOs, brands and others? Are they not all meant to sell themselves to their different target markets?   he queried.

For him, it is the ruling party that would be able to afford such amount; since they have access to state resources, and in most cases, are always above such rules.

He, however, disagreed with the claim that the culture was introduced by the present regime, arguing it had been there before, and that what the present administration had done was to take it farther.

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The immediate past president of the Out- of- Home Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), Chief Emma Ajufo, described the development as an attempt to create an uneven playing field.

According to him, the impact would be severe on the OoH advertising business since the amount would have taken a significant chunk of the candidate’s campaign budget to the extent that such candidate would barely  be left with resources to deploy to this sector.

“If as a candidate you have a N500million ad budget, and you are being asked to pay N200million as permit fee, before you are allowed to deploy your billboards in the state, how much are you left with then?   he asked rhetorically.

The former OAAN boss expressed the regrets that practitioners would not be able to seek redress in court over the development due to the fact they are not directly affected by the directive.