The Akwa Ibom State Government has called for stronger regulatory action against abuses in the digital advertising space, warning that the proliferation of deceptive digital content and artificial intelligence (AI)-generated manipulations was destroying businesses, families and individuals.
The State Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umana, made the call on Wednesday in Uyo at the ongoing Southern Regional Advertising Conference organised by the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), with the theme, “Regulatory Compliance and Its Challenges.”
Umana said the rapid expansion of digital platforms and the emergence of AI had created new regulatory challenges that required urgent and coordinated action by government and relevant regulatory authorities.
According to him, the digital space had become a platform where false and manipulated information could be disseminated to unsuspecting members of the public, with devastating consequences.
“What is on the digital space now is destroying families, destroying businesses, destroying people, and so on and so forth. So government must step up on all levels,” he said.
The commissioner, who recalled his involvement in the legislative process that led to the transition from the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) to ARCON, commended the advertising industry for its evolution, but said emerging challenges demanded stronger institutional support for the regulator.
He noted that conflicting regulations and the rapid penetration of digital platforms had complicated the task of ensuring compliance, stressing that government must provide ARCON with the necessary backing to effectively discharge its responsibilities.
Umana also called for closer scrutiny of political advertising, distinguishing between legitimate communication of government achievements and advertisements designed to market political interests. He said citizens had a right to know the achievements of their governments, but political messaging must pass through the appropriate regulatory processes.
Earlier, the Director-General of ARCON, Dr Olalekan Fadolapo, said the conference was designed to move beyond identifying regulatory problems to finding practical and sustainable solutions capable of strengthening the advertising industry.
Fadolapo said the conference provided an opportunity for regulators, practitioners, media owners, advertisers, policymakers, academics and other stakeholders to examine the regulatory framework from different perspectives and develop recommendations that would advance the industry.
He said, “We need to critically look into our compliance and regulatory governance framework,” adding that media owners and practitioners, creative and advertising agencies, as well as advertisers, viewed compliance from different touchpoints.
According to him, the ultimate objective was to develop a regulatory environment that would encourage innovation while safeguarding public confidence and market integrity. He said the deliberations should culminate in “actionable recommendations that improve regulatory efficiency and foster a stronger culture of compliance.”
The ARCON Director-General explained that the Southern Regional Conference was conceived after the success of a similar gathering in the North, noting that although the different regions had their peculiarities, there were common issues that required collective attention.
Fadolapo also urged advertising practitioners to take advantage of the International Advertising Association (IAA) chapter in Nigeria to access international learning, capacity-building and networking opportunities, while encouraging participants to continue the conversation at the forthcoming National Advertising Conference.
Also speaking, ARCON Southern Region Director, Martha U. Onyebuchi, said the conference was timely, particularly because some media organisations continued to accept and publish advertisements without first confirming that the required regulatory approval had been obtained.
She urged media houses to stop accepting advertising materials merely because they had been submitted for publication or broadcast, insisting that compliance was a shared responsibility across the advertising value chain.
“It is not okay for you to just take advertising materials, publication materials from any individual or organisation and just put it out on your station without making sure that the advert conforms to the rules and regulations of the advertising laws and regulations in Nigeria,” Onyebuchi said.
She expressed confidence that the two-day conference, which ends on Thursday, would produce practical measures for addressing compliance gaps and strengthening collaboration among regulators, practitioners and the media, urging participants to ensure that they returned to their various organisations with a better understanding of their responsibilities under Nigeria’s advertising regulatory framework.
