The Out-of-Home Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) has disassociated itself from the statement made by the Heads of Advertising Sectoral Group (HASG) which it is a member of, opposing a bill currently on the floor of the National Assembly seeking to establish a Chartered body for Out-of-Home Media practice in the country.
In a disclaimer issued by the association and signed by its President, ‘Sola Akinsiku said it is confident that the Chartered Out-Of-Home Media Practitioners of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill, 2024 upon being made into law will promote sanity, excellence, and professionalism in the Out-of-Home media ecosystem. It added that it was never part of the meeting where the HASG held to arrive at a resolution to oppose the bill.
The statement reads, “The attention of the leadership of the Out-of-Home Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) has been drawn to a publication by some media organisations identifying the association with a statement issued by the Heads of Advertising Sectoral Group (HASG). The said statement indicated that the group does not support a bill currently on the floor of the National Assembly seeking the establishment of a Chartered body for Out-of-Home Media practice in the country.
“The Association hereby makes this categorical statement that we were never a part of the HASG’s decision to oppose the bill. We were not at any meeting of the Group where any such issue was discussed and a decision was taken.”
It added, “For the avoidance of doubts, our Association has unequivocally and unambiguously expressed our support for the bill as proposed by the most distinguished Senator Abaribe Eyinnaya because we are convinced that the anticipated Charter will promote sanity, excellence, and professionalism in the Out-of-Home media ecosystem.
“We believe very strongly that it is in the best interest of our practice and business as well as the industry to have the proposed chartered status. At the least, onslaught against Out-of-Home Media Assets in the country would be protected and bastardization of the environment with cluttering would stop.”
It restated that it is not in support of the statement made by the HASG.”Therefore, we do reiterate that we do not subscribe to the statement by the HASG purporting to oppose the bill.”
The association is rather reaching out and encouraging the entire industry and stakeholders to fully support the charter bill, which is actually in the interest of protecting the OOH assets that provide visibility to advertisement of the advertisers (ADVAN) and advertising services of both creative and media agencies (AAAN and MIPAN) as the bill awaits a public hearing.
