Minister to ARCON, NBC: enforce zero tolerance on advertising debt
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has issued a firm directive to resolve the persisting advertising and media debt in Nigeria, a move that signals a decisive intervention
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has issued a firm directive to resolve the persisting advertising and media debt in Nigeria, a move that signals a decisive intervention by Federal Government in the advertising and media industry.
In a move that industry stakeholders have described as bold and timely, Idris directed Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) to collaborate with National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and heads of Advertising Sectoral Groups to resolve industry debts and enforce strict adherence to payment thresholds by stakeholders.
ARCON’s Director-General, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo, said the minister’s action is rooted in Federal Government’s broader economic vision.
He said zero tolerance for advertising industry debt is not merely a sectoral policy preference it is, in the minister’s view, essential to national development and a direct enabler of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
To give effect to his directive, ARCON has outlined three enforceable pillars on which resolution of advertising debt and adherence to payment standards will be pursued.
ARCON has mandated that payment for services be made within 45 days, in line with global best practice and Advertising Industry Standards of Practice.
Where payment is not made within the window, interest will accrue at prevailing market rate.
The directive mandates full compliance for Media Purchase Orders (MPOs) and Local Purchase Orders (LPOs) issued for media and advertising services. The minister has called on parties, including advertisers, agencies, and media houses, to be transparent in their dealings, ensuring a structured and disciplined payment process in Nigeria’s advertising ecosystem. This provision, the minister has emphasised, is not optional.
It is a cornerstone of Federal Government’s policy of protecting vulnerability of media houses, attracting new media assets investment, guaranteeing job security, ensuring industry stability, and generating stable advertising revenue for media operators.
ARCON also gave clear direction on how advertiser-agency separations must be conducted. While advertisers and business owners remain free to discharge, disengage or terminate agreements with their advertising agencies, ARCON had ab initio mandated that no advertiser may proceed to brief a new agency until outstanding financial obligations with the outgoing agency have been reconciled and settled.
Outgoing and incoming agencies are required, by this, to engage and conduct a back-check for ethical or financial breaches that may encumber new accounts. The statement is unambiguous, describing the engagement as “not only important, but statutory”, meaning it carries the weight of law, not merely industry courtesy.
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Recognising that not all debt situations are the product of bad faith, ARCON has established a dedicated Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) desk which will serve as a neutral platform for mediation, conciliation and arbitration to achieve the harmonious settlement of industry disputes.
This mechanism is designed to provide faster, less adversarial resolution pathways that will prevent disagreements from festering into the kind of protracted, multi-year debts that have long undermined the health of the industry.
ARCON, for its part, has responded with clear resolve. In the words of Dr. Fadolapo’s statement, the Council “will ensure full implementation of the Honourable Minister’s directive in sanitising the advertising and media industry, ensuring prompt payment for advertising services, and adherence to professional and statutory standards.”
All stakeholders and the advertising community have been enjoined to adhere to the new business framework, which is designed, in the Minister’s words, to improve and strengthen the ecosystem for the benefit of all.
