Why Waste LASAA’s Billboards?

Looking around in Lagos State, especially in some of the major roads in the city, it will be noticed that some billboards with the Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency (LASAA) name and logo on it have been standing vacant since the beginning of 2009. This has raised lots of complaints from stakeholders in the industry. Onyinye Obiweluozor spoke with professionals on the issue and reports.

The advent of Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency (LASAA) has since been crowded with lots of complaints from stakeholders; from the pulling down of practitioners’ billboards, to high registration costs, ban on registration, favouritism in giving out of sites and now the empty billboards left unsold/un-leased to practitioners for adverts.
Some industry watchers have expressed their misgivings on these empty and vacant billboards left unused throughout 2009. These can be found on major roads in Ikeja, Ikoyi and Victoria Island.. They opine that LASAA should have leased out/sold those spaces to outdoor practitioners for advert placement since last year.  
Reacting to this, Mr. Temitope Akande, Public Relations Manager, LASAA says, “Those boards were erected to serve as prototypes for outdoor advertising practitioners to copy from and erect theirs.”
Sampling opinion from some of these industry watchers, some questions were raised. “For how long will the prototypes boards remain vacant, considering the fact that these boards have been standing as prototypes for a long time? Is this prolonged idea of prototype not narrowing business?”
“These boards are situated on very busy roads in Lagos state and very good sites for advertisers to see their products. Why is LASAA not putting that into consideration?”  
Going further, Akande says, “These spaces where the prototypes boards are standing formerly belonged to some practitioners. These sites will still be handed over to these practitioners when we are through.”
This gives rise to another question: “when will these sites be handed over to the practitioners?” Most practitioners, including the original owners of those sites, reason that there are limited spaces for erecting billboards. Yet, despite that, LASAA still left some spaces ‘free’ without adverts.
Could it be that these boards are still serving their purposes of prototypes or that the regulatory agency is leaving it for its own personal gains?
Speaking to some practitioners in the industry, they seemed to concur with Akande.
 Mr. Ladi Sole, General Manager/CEO, Unik Sites Ltd, says, “LASAA is in the process of handing those boards over to some Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria – OAAN members.. Those boards are the kind of billboards that the regulatory body want on those roads. So they are serving as prototypes for practitioners. The cost of location and structure will be paid for by the practitioners because these boards were built by LASAA. The intent is just to make sure that the billboards on these roads are uniform.”
 Sir (Prince) Emeka Okezie, Managing Director/CEO, Graphic projects Limited says, “These billboards are of a particular pattern which the regulatory body demands for those roads.. They boards have been allocated to members and they have been requested to pay for those sites and structure.”  
Mr. Bankole Ademulegun, president, Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), corroborating Sole and Okezie, points out that those boards are for OAAN members’ use. “The thing is that LASAA insists that billboards on those roads should be back-lit. Some of those boards that have been illuminated have been given out to OAAN members. The Only ones yet to be given out are those on Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way which are yet to be illuminated. The electrical linking has not been done. That is why those boards are still vacant.”
Despite these explanations experts opine that these ‘prototypes’ could have been used to generate revenue for the state while serving their purpose. After all one of the major reasons that LASAA was set up is to generate more revenue for the state government. Are they achieving that by leaving those boards and spaces vacant for such a long period of time?