MARCH 23, 2015
Parties spend N4.9bn on political adverts ...As regulators, agencies decry unvetted political ads BY PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU
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ITH just five days to the March 28 elections, advertising spend on political campaigns has been estimated to have cost political parties, friends and well wishers of those seeking elective offices a princely N4.9 billion so far. However, federal and state advert regulatory agencies have expressed displeasure over publications of unapproved advert materials. According to data gathered from different advert agencies and reports from advert regulatory bodies, the print media have so far raked in about N1.382 billion of the advert spend, with the All Progressives Congress, APC spending N332.503 million on its presidential candidate, while its Peoples Democratic Party, PDP counterpart spent N1.049 billion, which is 65.5 per cent higher than the amount spent by APC. Field reports further put other expenses on campaign rallies for PDP and APC at N1.057 billion and N595.082 million respectively. Both parties also spent N224.36 million on outdoor campaigns. The broadcast campaign coverage for the presidential candidates were put at N508.35 million and N391.05 million for PDP and APC. Electronic media adverts were N733.9million for PDP and N555.6 million for APC respectively, bringing the total amount to N2.5 billion. In summary, a total of N4.973 billion has been spent on campaign expenses, with PDP and
APC spending N3.549 billion and N1.424 billion respectively. Last year, the Advertising Agencies Association of Nigeria, AAAN had projected that the 2015 general elections will contribute billions of naira to the advert industry, an amount it said will form major part of the advertising spend for the 2015 advertising year. But from recent development and the run of political campaigns so far, the projection has been surpassed in terms of adspend. However, advert practitioners feel the estimate is much less than what has been spent, going by the inability of heads of sectoral bodies in the advert
industry to track the amount spent by politicians, as a result of the haphazard nature the adverts were given out. It would be recalled that in 2014, former president of AAAN and Chief Operating Officer of 141 Worldwide, Bunmi Oke, predicted a bright future for any ad agency that puts its act together to tap into the windfall expected from the election year and the huge budget politicians would earmark for the 2015 political campaigns. Worried by the bulk of political campaign materials, Financial Vanguard sampled the opinions of
stakeholders who were particularly disappointed at the manner unapproved political materials litter advertising spaces in the country. It is a fact that Nigeria has a history of not coming out with election spending figures, and data are equally unavailable on the actual spending of politicians on campaigns. But going by the volume of materials churned out through the different media of communication for political parties, it is no longer in doubt that billions of naira were spent in the 2015 election campaigns. Continues on page 22
LECTURE: MD/ CEO of Wema Bank, Mr Segun Oloketuyi here makes a presentation on 'Growing Your Money' to students of Government Secondary School, Moraba, Ilorin, in Kwara State to commemorate the Child & Youth Financial Literacy Day.
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