Author: The Nation

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and four other government agencies have been recognised among the top five most business efficient and transparent agencies for the year 2022.

The announcement was contained in Federal Government’s 2022 Executive Order 001 Compliance Report released recently by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC).

Other government agencies which made the top five of the award are Nigerian Content Development  Monitoring Board  Export-Import (NCDMB), Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC), Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

Executive Secretary of PEBEC, Jumoke Oduwole, said that the agencies have performed extremely well to meet consumer demands in the best and most efficient ways to promote businesses in their bids to achieve excellent service delivery.

“In the latest EO1 Compliance Report, NCDMB emerged first at 81.11per cent; SON second at 78.68 per cent,” said Oduwole who is also Special Adviser to the President, Ease of Doing Business.

She added, “The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (3rd, 68.37 per cent); Nigerian Export-Import Bank (4th, 64.59 per cent); and Corporate Affairs Commission (5th, 63.68 per cent).”

Oduwole said the report was released in line with PEBEC’s promise to continuously track and keep the business community updated on the compliance with the order on transparency and efficiency in the Nigerian business environment.

Recall that the Director General of SON, Mallam Farouk Salim, had always emphasised on the need for government agencies to be business facilitators rather than perceived as bottlenecks to the business community.

In this regard, SON recently commenced the digitalisation of its process to fast track ease of doing business and seamless processes, thereby reducing Hunan touch.

SON has also stepped up its game by investing massively in laboratory testing and calibration and measurement process to advance testing of Nigerian products for local consumption and export.

This feat will help Nigeria participate actively in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement ( (AfCFTA).

On May 18, 2017, Executive Order 001 on Transparency and Efficiency in the Business Environment was issued as the current administration’s first executive order to strengthen the implementation of business climate reforms.

It was issued to also deepen collaboration among ministries, departments and agencies by instituting a systemic change management process for reforms.

The order mandates MDAs to submit monthly reports to the PEBEC secretariat, the Offices of the Head of Service of the Federation, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, as well as SERVICOM.

In the last six years, PEBEC has consistently published an EO1 Compliance Report, which captures a periodic empirical analysis of the monthly reports received from MDAs.

By Afolabi Idowu

The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria, (ARCON) is beginning a clampdown on unapproved advertisements exposed in the traditional or online media with characters in the advert in military, police, or paramilitary uniforms.

Lekan Fadolapo, director-general of ARCON, said this recently in Lagos at the engagement and education of operators in the digital space on the importance of vetting adverts before publication.

According to him, “military, police, or NYSC uniforms will not be allowed to be used for advertisement purposes. “For us to use them there must be approval by the paramilitary, military involved.”

Fadolapo warned that if any advert violates these guidelines, ARCON and the respective law enforcement organ will go after the agency or media house.

“It is basically to sanitise the advertising space as all manner of advertisements including indecent, nude, untruthful and unethical adverts are exposed to Nigerian audience, it is not also an attempt by the Federal Government to regulate freedom of speech in social media.

“We are not regulating comedy nor Online space. What we are saying is that if any online platform is involved in the advertising space, those advertising activities will be regulated. Whatever advertising you are exposing on your platform, whether self-created or third-party creation must have Advertising Standard Panel approval,” he stressed.

The director general of the advertising regulatory body said henceforth, ARCON will impose the law on any advertisement in the online space that is not vetted before exposure.

He, however, said obituary and vacancy advertisements are exempted but where they are not truthful, ARCON will go after them.

Also speaking at the forum, Charles Odenigbo, a legal practitioner, recommends that all materials should be endorsed by a registered advertising practitioner before vetting and subsequent exposure or publication.

He said the laws and regulations of advertising require practitioners and media to be diligent in ensuring compliance at all times as ignorance of the law is no excuse.

The ARCON Act 2022 empowers the council to regulate and control advertising, advertisement and marketing communication in all its aspects and ramifications directed at or exposed to the Nigerian market. It is also to prevent and eliminate harmful and offensive advertisements from being exposed to or directed at the Nigerian market.

Konga, Nigeria’s leading composite e-commerce platform has partnered with Verve International to reward customers with free shopping vouchers.

Tagged Season of Rewards, the campaign, which kicked off on March 1, 2023 will see shoppers receive free vouchers when they shop on Konga.com with their Verve cards.

The partnership underpins the commitment of both brands to add value by providing useful incentives for customers who make payments with their Verve cards.

Consequently, Verve card holders who shop on www.konga.com are in for great rewards, with free shopping vouchers made available to them within a 24-hour period which they can immediately use on their next shopping on the Konga platform.

The vouchers can also apply to any category of product that catches their fancy, ranging from Mobile Phones, Computing, Electronics, Fashion, Home & Kitchen, Groceries, etc.

“We are delighted to partner with Verve to bring this exciting offer to shoppers on the Konga platform,’’ disclosed Gideon Ayogu, Group Head, Marketing & Communications, Konga Group.

‘‘We are confident that this would deliver more value to Verve card holders in their shopping experience, while also encouraging them to shop more.’’

Also commenting on the development, Chidi Oluaoha, Group Head, Growth Marketing Payment tokens and Financial Inclusion Services, Interswitch said Verve is committed to creating rewarding experiences for Verve cardholders while supporting their lifestyle needs. 

He said “Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, and we are always looking for ways to reward them with invaluable payment experiences. It is for this purpose we are partnering with Konga to bring this exciting offer to Verve cardholders while giving them seamless, swifter and more secure payment solutions.”

 He further urged new and existing Verve cardholders to take advantage of this opportunity to enjoy the benefits of shopping on Konga and earning free shopping vouchers.

Through this Season of Rewards promo, Konga and Verve are confident of giving Verve card holders more reasons to use their cards for e-commerce transactions and avoiding the ongoing hassles with cash availability.

Both companies are also committed to improving financial inclusion and convenience for millions of Nigerians.

The business climate for most companies in the last quarter of 2022 showed a bearish run if the figures made available by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is anything top go about.

Specifically, the company income taxes dropped to N753.88 billion in Q4 2022.

From the available report, the total company income taxes (CIT) generated in Nigeria witnessed a negative outcome  by -6.95% to N753.88 billion in Q4 2022 from N810,19 billion in 03 2022.

The NBS further stated that the total local CIT received during the period stood at N353 90 billion, while foreign CIT payment contributed N399.98 billion in Q4 2022.

This also indicated that the top three largest contributors in 04 2022 were manufacturing  which stood at 31.20%, financial & insurance activities at 12.96% and information and communication activities at 12.77%.

This result, it explained, is an indicator that information and communication had the lowest growth rate with 65.75% followed by arts, entertainment and recreation activities with -64.09%.

“In terms of sectoral contributions, the top three largest shares in Q4 2022 were manufacturing with 31.20%, financial & insurance activities with 12.96% and Information and communication activities with 12.77% conversely, the activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods- and services producing activities of households for own use recorded the least share with 0.01% followed by Water supply sewerage, waste management and remediation activities with 0.12% and activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies with 0. 14%.”

In all, the NBS Nigeria generated a sum of N2.51 trillion as Value Added Tax (VAT) in 2022, marking a 21.2% increase compared to N2.07 trillion recorded in the previous year, while noting that the sum of N1.48 trillion was generated as local non-import VAT, N510.8 billion was generated as foreign non-import VAT, and Nigeria Custom Service (NCS) remitted N521.5 billion VAT.

By Afolabi Idowu

Immediately the Major-General Yakubu Gowon administration introduced the Indigenisation Policy in 1973, the business of advertising was one of those affected by the Decree. And to latch on this policy, a group of indigenous advertising practitioners gathered to form a body then called Association of Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria, AAPN, which has since changed its name to Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN. 

Over the last 50 years, the association has remained one of the few professional bodies that do not have splinter groups and there is no brand in Nigeria that is worth its salt either local or international brands that have not worked with at least one member of this association. Such was its importance and relevance to the business and practice of advertising and the whole gamut of brand building and nurturing.

Many have agreed that the business of advertising as it used to be has totally changed due to different areas of the business standing on their own. For instance, media buying, creatives, brand activation, experiential marketing, just to mention a few have since become separate advertising business areas. In fact, some of these have even made attempts to form their own group. Yet, they used to be under the general advertising practice in those days.

Perhaps, it is high time the government bailed out the traditional business of advertising by churning out more businesses to practitioners.

In 2013, when the association was celebrating its 40th anniversary, the then president, Mrs Bunmi Oke, when she was asked about her vision for advertising by the time AAAN would be celebrating its 50th anniversary, she said by 2023 advertising agencies should be the ones working on various federal government campaigns through the ministries and parastatals.

“Vision is that at the federal government level, the president and his ministers whenever they want to do a campaign, the first thing they will have in mind is the fact that “which agency are we using. Just the same way they will ask of the accountants and lawyers, I want it to get to a point where they will realise and recognise the importance of putting think-tanks together to always work on those projects,” she recalled.

Speaking further, she said this should also extend to foreign missions in the country.

“I would like a situation whereby when foreign embassies in Nigeria are doing things, they would look for agencies to work with and promote things in Nigeria, that day, I will know we’ve really come of age as professionals.”

As at today, advertising agencies have not been able to work on 50% of federal government briefs. On the part of agency owners, it is time they increase the rate at which they engage both federal and governments for advertising briefs.

Perhaps, agency heads need to intensify their efforts in lobbying governments for advertising jobs and more  advertising professionals need to jostle to occupy more public offices so as to facilitate advertising businesses and above all, Nigeria advertising professionals should market their services.

Apart from working to have more government briefs, advertising professionals should continue to strive to meet the expectations of present sophisticated and technologically savvy customers that easily use multiple devices to talk to themselves.

In terms of combining creative copy writing or brand content creation and publishing to form advertising storytelling to face the emergence of different audiences in the present day digital world, few agencies have gotten there as many still lag behind and stuck at where they were 50 years ago.

Whether the creative industry likes it or not, there is still a need to establish proper advertising vocational schools to train and retrain prospective and potential advertising practitioners in order to make them capable of facing and solving the present and future advertising challenges.

These advertising vocational schools have to take the profession to the next level as far as advertising practice is concerned. Thanks to some Nigerian universities that are now offering advertising exclusively as a course of study.

To the association’s advantage and to the benefits of advertising sector generally, The Advertising Industry Standard of Practice (AISOP) as formulated by the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) is meant to revitalise the advertising sector and grow the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) operating in the space.

It also came to the fore as part of the measures to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses in the country.

The AISOP, according to the formulators, was expected to create a standard operating system that would stimulate advertising practice and the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) environment as a whole.

This came about as a result of various calls by stakeholders in the advertising space who have been calling for regulation as a result of various malaises, such as audience measurement; debt recovery; pitch fee; payment terms; and others affecting them.

Director General, Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria, ARCON , Olalekan Fadolapo, has made it clear during the public presentation of AISOP in Lagos last year that the faithful application of the Advertising Industry Reform in the country would not only grow the business of advertising and marketing communications but will also create well over 100,000 jobs directly and indirectly in the coming years.

The benefits of AISOP as stated by ARCON and others would lead to the development of the advertising space and as the association clocks 50, it must ready to present itself in such a way that the benefits of AISOP do not elude her.

Regardless, 50 is a milestone. There is no way one would not celebrate an individual who clocks 50 unscathed. And the same applies to an organisation.

But one spectacular thing about the advertising professionals is that they have some of the most dynamic minds. As they fight at the pitch tables, they still come out with open minds towards one another. That makes the relationship cordial and by extension the association thick.

That’s why as part of the activities for celebrating the 50th anniversary, the current president of the association, Steve Babaeko, during the unveiling of the 50th anniversary logo said AAAN would be recognising and celebrating its icons, past and present, whose efforts have contributed to making the Nigerian creative industry a force to reckon with, local and internationally.

“This milestone marks half a century of creative excellence and dedication to the advertising industry of Nigeria and we are proud to celebrate with the unveiling of this logo. This logo, designed by one of our talented creative designers, Bashorun Olabayo, represents the growth and evolution of AAAN over the last 50 years. The bold and modern design represents our commitment to stay at the forefront of the industry, while the colours and imagery pay homage to our diverse culture and heritage.

“It represents our commitment to continue to provide services that will enhance development of advertising in Nigeria. This logo will serve as a symbol of our organisation’s achievements and aspirations and would be seen in all our communications.”

Executive Director, AAAN, Kemi Fabusoro said activities lined up for the anniversary include a mini golf tournament for charity, a walk for life health initiative and anniversary documentary chronicling the journey of the association.

The ceremony will also include an anniversary lecture, industry night and will culminate with the AAAN annual general meeting and award/gala night.

As the association members are cutting the cakes, making merry that are consistent with any 50th anniversary celebrations, they should continue to strategise on the improvement of advertising works to meet the global best practices and to continue keeping the unity band tight among members for the benefits of the association.

Alvaro Lario, President of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has made a case for long term investments in rural communities.

Lario, who made this call during his first visit to Germany since taking office five months ago, commended Germany’s leadership throughout the recent global food, energy and climate crises, and stressed that “it is vital that we scale up our response, not just with emergency aid, but also by investing in building long-term resilience in the world’s most vulnerable populations.”

“Every dollar spent on building resilience can save up to 10 dollars in emergency aid in the future,” said Lario, referring to the investments used to build the capacity of small-scale farmers who are often among the hardest hit because they lack the resources to cope with climate events, conflict, inflation and supply-chain interruptions.

Lario praised Germany’s commitment to working towards a world free of hunger and poverty while noting that levels of hunger, malnutrition and poverty are expected to rise this year, in part due to the effects of the war in Ukraine.

The President of IFAD met with Svenja Schulze, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, who presented Germany’s new Feminist Development Policy and outlined the critical role women play in agriculture and rural development.

“Women are strong actors and agents of change. They have knowledge which should be used for the benefit of all of society, for example when it comes to adaptation to climate change. This is particularly true for rural development. Women are the ones who plant the fields. They know which plants are best able to resist drought and heat. They know how intercropping can preserve soil fertility. If women had the same access to agricultural inputs as men, yields could increase by up to 30 per cent. Economically and socially empowered women benefit their entire families – through more education, better nutrition, and better health,” said Minister Schulze.

“We share Germany’s approach to address the root causes of inequalities between women and men, such as social norms and religious beliefs, as well as policy and legal constraints that prevent women and girls from thriving and reaching their potential,” said the President of IFAD, the only UN organization that focuses exclusively on rural development. “IFAD’s focus on gender equality through all of its supported projects and programmes, demonstrates the tremendous impact women can have. With increased investment, this can and should be scaled up and applied more widely.”

The President of IFAD argued for increased investments in rural populations, which are now desperately needed to build resilience, to help farmers adapt to climate change and restore rural livelihoods impacted by recent global crises. He reminded members of parliament that “every euro from Germany delivers a pro-poor investment worth six euros,” referring to IFAD’s capacity to leverage funding.

In a recent report from the Center for Global Development, IFAD ranked number one overall in the quality of development assistance provided. The report compares quality performance across 49 of the largest bilateral and multilateral aid and development agencies.

The IFAD boss emphasised that supporting small-scale food producers, especially women, to adapt to climate change is as essential to feed the world – they produce one-third of the world’s food – as it is to preserve global stability and biodiversity due to the strong connection between food security, climate adaptation and stability.

IFAD is an international financial institution and a United Nations specialised agency. Based in Rome – the United Nations food and agriculture hub – IFAD invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, we have provided more than US$24/ billion in grants and low-interest loans to fund projects in developing countries.