FG Assures Local Content In Advertising Will Save 500,000 Jobs

The Federal Government said yesterday that the implementation of a policy to ensure that 75% cumulative local content is integrated into all advertisement, advertising and marketing communication materials with effect from January 1, this year, was and is still meant to create a minimum of 500,000 jobs annually.

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who said this during the Advertising Industry Colloquium 2023 organised by the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) in Lagos, added that it would also save the country hundreds of millions of Naira in capital flight owing to the production of advertisement outside the country.

According to the Minister, “The introduction of the Advertising Industry Standard of Practice, AISOP, which seeks to provide a minimum expectation of business practices among stakeholders and eradicate unethical activities which are inimical to the general interest of the advertising industry in Nigeria is one of the high points of the Council.”

He said, “We noted the deficiencies in the now repealed Advertising Practitioners (Registration) Act, which inhibited the erstwhile Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) from achieving its full potential in regulating the business and practice of advertising in Nigeria. The circumstances led to the diligent task of ensuring that the Council is, through the appropriate Act of the National Assembly, adequately empowered to carry out her functions.