*’Pay Your Bills Within 14 Days, Or We Remove, Seal, Impound Billboards’
The Department of Outdoor Advertisement and Signage (DOAS) of Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has embarked on a comprehensive first party and third party compliance drive and enforcement exercise to clean up and sanitize outdoor advertising practice in the nation’s capital.
The exercise targets first party billboards – billboards not more than five meters from business premises owned by companies to advertise their products – whose owners have also failed to pay their statutory bills; and third party billboards – owned by outdoor advertisement practitioners that are wrongly placed on walkways, flower gardens, under electricity high tension lines and other unapproved locations.
DOAS is the statutory regulator of outdoor advertisements and signage in the nation’s capital.
Speaking during the compliance and enumeration exercise in Abuja, Overseeing Director of DOAS, Dr. Azaki Sunday Kachiwoyi, said on coming to office recently, he realized that the city was clustered with billboards that were not properly placed and did not meet global standards.
To address the challenge, he convened a general meeting with all outdoor advertisement practitioners in the FCT to discuss the way forward on how to decongest Abuja city and ensure billboards are properly placed to accord with regulation and standards.
According to him, during the meeting, both parties – DOAS and the practitioners – agreed that the latter be given 21 days to do the right thing and regularize their structures.
He noted that at the meeting too, it was agreed that at the expiration of the 21 days, both parties had agreed that enforcement should be carried out on any billboard owned by a practitioner who refused to comply.
On first party compliance, Dr. Kachiwoyi said the Department had earlier issued bills to all affected billboard owners, noting that,despite this, many failed to make payment.
Consequently, he disclosed, DOAS is now placing ‘X’ signs on such billboards as a warning.
Throwing more light on this, Dr. Kachiwoyi said: “Those billboards with ‘X’ signs are warning signs. We are giving them 14 days within which to come to DOAS and pay their outstanding bills.”
The Overseeing Director warned that failure to pay within 14 days will attract full enforcement action including removal, sealing or impounding of such items.
On third party, he said enforcement has commenced against billboards erected on walkways, flower gardens, under electricity high tension cables and other unauthorized spots which deface the city and pose safety risks, emphasizing that the reason for the exercise is to ensure that the city is clean, safe and orderly.
He called on all affected first party owners with ‘X’ signs to come for reconciliation and payment, and urged erring third party practitioners to remove all wrongly placed structures voluntarily to avoid enforcement.
The Overseeing Director thanked the Minister of FCT, Barrister Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, for his infrastructural development, especially roads construction which, Dr. Kachiwoyi stressed, opened new roads that enabled DOAS to leverage on for business and thus create additional revenue for the Administration.
Dr. Kachiwoyi assured that DOAS remained committed to creating a clean, safe and business-friendly outdoor advertising environment in line with the vision of FCTA.
*PHOTO CAPTION: Staff members at a billboard.
