The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Friday stressed the need to tripple the advertising revenue in Nigeria.
The Minister said this at a meeting with the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) in Lagos.
Mohammed said this will be achieved through the introduction of the audience measurement system and the reform of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC.
“We take the advertising industry seriously and that is why we
included it as part of our creative industry. It always bothers me
that with our population, we are third to South Africa and probably
Kenya in terms of advertisement revenue and that today we barely make $400 million advertisement revenue and this is not good enough.
“It has always been my passionate mission to ensure that we increase revenue from advertisement in Nigeria to at least three times of what it is now because, given our population and market, there is no reason
why we should not be doing better than South Africa or Kenya,” Mohammed said.
In his remarks, the President of the AAAN, Mr. Steve Babaeko, appealed to the Minister to give the advertising industry a pride of place, especially in accessing some intervention funds in the Central Bank of Nigeria and the enjoyment of tax holiday like other players in the creative industry.
He also commended the Federal Government over the appointment of Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo as the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), saying he came
to the job with a huge wealth of experience from the industry and that his appointment will further strengthen the relationship between the government and the advertising industry.
The Minister was accompanied to the meeting by the Registrar/CEO of APCON, Dr. Fadolapo; as well as the Directors-General of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA and the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC Mallam Yakubu Ibn Mohammed and Mallam Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, respectively.
