Olufemi Adeyemi 

From Left: Mr. Jenkins Alumona, AAAN Vice President; Dr. Lekan Fadolapo, APCON Registrar/CEO; Mr. Steve Babaeko, AAAN President; and Mrs. Ijedi Iyoha, APCON Deputy Director of Regulations during a visit to the Advertising House on Friday.

The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) has mandated Social media Influencers, bloggers, and skit makers among others to seek its approval before advertising any service or product online.

ARCON on Monday disclosed that most advertisements put out often contain unverified and unethical claims.

The council via a statement disclosed that this new rule was necessitated after it had received incessant complaints regarding unregulated advertisements.

The statement reads, “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, etc), and other advertising stakeholders in the digital online media space are advised to obtain pre-exposure approval of all advertisements, advertising, and marketing communications by the Nigerian Code of Advertising Practice and the ARCON Act No. 23 of 2022.”

The council further disclosed that it will pelt out necessary actions against violators of this act.

Recall that the advertising regulatory agency two months ago slammed a N30 Billion penalty on Meta Platforms Incorporated, (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) because of their penchant to expose unapproved adverts to Nigerian audiences without any recourse to a regulatory authority.

The agency disclosed that the continued exposure of the unvetted adverts by Meta has led to a loss of revenue to the federal government.

Also in August 2022, ARCON banned the use of foreign models in Nigerian advertising media after it reported that Nigeria loses over N120 million annually to foreign production of advertisements.

The agency disclosed that the banning of foreign models would lead to the creation of over 500,000 new job opportunities annually, within the advertising industry which will no doubt positively impact Nigeria’s economy.

ARCON has continued to look out for the protection of the general public and consumers, as well as ensuring the promotion of local content and entrenching international best practices.

The council has on several occasions reiterated that it would not permit unethical and irresponsible advertising on Nigeria’s advertising space.