Tom Magumba
7 October 2008
Kampala — It is not business as usual for outdoor advertisers after the National Roads Authority suspended the erection of billboards on national roads. Major outdoor advertising firms often target strategic sites along highways to leverage their business and that of their clients.
However, a media announcement from the National Roads Authority (UNRA) suspending erection of billboard and signboards on strategic places along highways seems to have caught outdoor advertisers on a wrong footing.
Advertisers say the move has affected their planning and risks the already running contracts with their clients. They also accuse UNRA of only contacting them through the press. "We are concerned because we have not been contacted to chart the way forward," Mr George Mpaji, the publicity secretary of Uganda Outdoor Advertising Practitioners Association said in an interview last week.
However, Mr Dan Alinange, the spokesperson of Road Agency Formation Unit said the suspension was for only one month as they prepare new guidelines for erecting billboards on national roads. He said UNRA had noted that most of the billboards especially on strategic national roads were illegal, of poor quality, exaggerated size and were erected in wrong positions.
"Companies have been putting billboards without considering safety standards which we want to streamline," Mr Alinange said. "It is not going to be business as usual."
In May 2006, Parliament passed the Uganda National Roads Authority Act. And in late 2006, UNRA became a legal entity, allowing the Minister of Works and Transport, with Cabinet approval, to appoint the board of directors of UNRA. The priority of the board is to now make UNRA fully operational by combining RAFU development resources with the Ministry of Works and Transport maintenance resources.
Mr Mpaji said the RAFU should not only consider guidelines but other pending issues like expediting the procedure of approving a billboard, unifying the distance on road reserves. "This is what encourages putting up illegal billboards especially when industry players are under pressure from clients," he said.
But as the highways get littered with billboards from different companies, advertising agencies maintain that they are ready to fight on since billboards are considered a cheaper and increasingly popular means of advertising. Mr Mpaji said for example it costs them at least Shs4.5 million to run a full page coloured advert in print media as opposed to Shs15million on a billboard for one year.
Kampala City Council (KCC) remains the key beneficiary in this business even as the UNRA wields the axe targeting some of those allegedly KCC licensed billboards on national roads.
KCC Spokesperson, Mr Simon Muhumuza, said they may have approved some billboards on national roads before putting in place guidelines but not in recent times. He however expressed his readiness to cooperate with UNRA in bringing sanity to the sector. "We shall give a no objection as long as UNRA endorses a company," he said.
A new policy being formulated at KCC would require the council to deal with only registered outdoor firms but not actual advertisers starting with an operation to remove all the illegal billboards and those whose license has expired.
The current problem in the outdoor advertising is due to lack of a comprehensive policy on advertising. "With business growing government needs to formulate a national policy outdoor advertising," Mr Mpaji said.
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