LAGOS – As the lockdown continues in parts of Nigeria and its attendance obstruction to movement of people, Emma Ajufo, president of the Outdoor Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (OAAN) has lamented the huge loses of revenue to outdoor agencies and hinted that the association is currently collating loses with the intention of engaging regulatory agencies for waivers.
Ajufo, who is also the Managing Director of Opportunity To See (OTS), an out of home media agency, in an interview with DAILY INDEPENDENT, noted that while the lockdown is a welcome development to curtail the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria, adding that businesses, particularly, the outdoor sector of advertising has been hard hit as many agencies have witnessed order cancellations.
“We are already collating our projected losses so that we can use them to engage various State Regulatory Agencies for waivers too. We also will need our own palliative when hopefully, all these are over.
Suffice it to say, that our Industry is supporting the government in this period by helping Lagos State government to communicate the issues around this pandemic to our people.
” Though he said he could not give exact figures the outdoor agencies are losing now, he said they are working to get it right, but I can tell you that it runs into several billions. You also know that the lockdown is still on going, so, the anguish of the outdoor agencies can only be imagined. You need people to move about to see our boards, so, it is really affecting us.
“The COVID- 19 Pandemic has a very negative impact on our economy in general and Advertising industry in particular On the COVID- 19 Pandemic impact on the economy in general, the outdoor boss said with a fragile economy such as Nigeria which is dependent on oil, Nigeria should expect hard time ahead.
“As you know our economy is a bit fragile to the extent that the mainstay of our economy is still oil. The demand for oil has been greatly affected by the global lockdown. It is only an active world that needs energy. “So, apart from the Saudi/Russia oil war, the COVID-19 Pandemic has made industries to work less because of the global lockdown.
Our Industry is affected too. Our sector is much more affected now. As you know one unique advantage we have is exposing to our people that are always on the move outside their home. However now that we have the lockdown people are not outdoors anymore. On how OTS is coping with the lockdown, Ajufo said its greatest assets are the staff members. “That was why we shut down our office a week before the compulsory shut down by government.
We know that it won’t be easy for the company but thank God that we can work online and this is what we have been doing. “I get my daily report from all concerned and we do our meeting online with video calls. So indeed, work is going on even with the restrictions. The clients are still being serviced within the limits allowed in the various places we work in.
“The Operation teams are working within the limits of the restriction timeline they have in their various stations and online banking has made it easy for us to release money to do our jobs as at when due.
“The only snag is that we are not getting paid for invoices due as our client’s claim that they can’t pay now. We are however going ahead to do what we need to do as we know that this is a phase that will pass soon”.
He said the only snag is that most of the briefs are either cancellation or suspended orders for campaigns. “We understand the times, and actually know that these briefs are to be expected at this time.
Ref link: Brandcom