The President of Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) and The Managing Director of Media Views Limited, I was honored to have met him and I am Pleased to bring him closer to you. Do enjoy meeting him too!

Can you introduce yourself Sir?
I am Babatunde Adedoyin, presently the Managing Director of Media Views Limited, an outdoor broadcasting Agency based in Ikeja Lagos and we have branches in Abuja and Benin.
What do you do at Media Views Limited?
Basically we are an outdoor advertising practitioner, and we do different sizes of billboards ranging from the static board, to a static board, to ultra-waves and so on. We effectively cover Lagos, the western, south west, up to Benin and some part of the North.
How long have you been in this business?
I have been in this business since the last 21years, but before then I have done few other things, I have worked with a battery manufacturing company called BEREC as Marketing Assistant and later became the Assistant Sales Manager. I also formed partnership with a company called inter-media which was also an outdoor agency and I was the Managing Director for 6years before I established Media View Limited in 1995, about 21years ago.
Can you share the experience you have had in this business?
Well, it’s been very lucrative, particularly in the past before the regulators. The state government of the federation started regulating outdoor advertising, it used to be regulated by the local government, in the Era of the Local Government it was a very interesting business, charges at that time was low and the profit margin was high, but today most state government see our business as an IGR, the rate they charge is high and its affecting our profit margin. We have been appealing to them to be considerate but we are still not successful at that and we believe the issue will be resolved when government listens to us. The rate is quite alarming, we can’t pass this to our clients otherwise it will make our medium so expensive and they will find other avenues or mediums to use. They have the press, newspapers, television, radio and even the internet, this day we have a lot of below the line activities going on, and we are being mindful not transferring this cost to our clients so we do not appear too expensive. We can only plead to the government to reduce their rate so that we can compete effectively among our peer.
What can you tell us about the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN)?
OAAN has been on for a very long time, OAAN is one of the oldest associations not only in Nigeria. it’s been existing for over a 100years now and there have been lots of development from signage to plywood, to all metal boards and today we have the electronics, we see lots of electronic billboards around. It is about innovation and we will continue to play in it. We do go out for seminars, conferences and trade shows, outdoor advertising is a global practice and we have the association conferences every year from country to country all over the world. Nigeria’s association is also associated with the American association and we share information, we attend their conferences and trade shows while they also attend ours. We invite them to our trade shows and General meetings, and they send their representatives. I can conveniently say that there’s nothing they do in Europe or America that we don’t do here and that is because we work together as professional bodies.
I learnt the Association is in zones, what zone do you handle?
The association is not in Zones, I am the president of OAAN and we have zonal chairmen, the president is responsible to the Executives and the association members at large. We have Abuja and the North chairman, we have the eastern chairman, we have the south-south chairman, and we have the south-west chairman. We have about five of them , so when matters arises, or crisis the first person to reach is the zonal chairman, he will then rally round the members and inform the National Headquarters which is presently based in Lagos.
How is the experience being the President of the association?
It has been interesting, rough, fortunately and unfortunately when we took over about a year ago we met a lot of dispute on ground, dispute between the government and the association. Mainly because of the high rate I mentioned earlier. We believe for our businesses to thrive the government has to stop looking at our business as an IGR because it is a business, we are investing into it, we are employing staffs, and we pay taxes both at the federal and state level, but yet the rate state government charges are extremely high. This will only discourage people from bringing money into this business and invariably it will affect a lot of us in this sector, even our clients will find alternatives. This is a major problem that we have and as I speak we are in court in Benin with the state government, we are virtually in court in Kaduna just to resolve this issue, and we are also in discussion with some of the states. Well, some states are very good to us, for instance Cross River state has been fantastic, our AGM was held there, outdoor/signage practice in conjunction with the Deputy Governor , they see us as an investor and we were given a 2years tax free policy with conditions apply which can be met. Fabrications should be done in their state, we must buy everything in their state and we can erect our billboards with 2years tax free, it is a very brilliant idea, what they want to do is create jobs for their artisan. After educating them much about how clients are not willing to pay expensively and how other competitors are taking our businesses and all, they decided to reduce their rate by 50percent, and so far we have been enjoying and doing well with the advantage. We also plead with other state government to follow same tract in other to help the business survive.
How long have you served the association as the president?
I started serving last year July, its 1year and 2months already.
Who are the people Media Views Limited cater for?
We work for all multi-nationals, we have been in business for some time now, and in the past we have worked for GLO, MTN, WEST AFRICAN MILK, INTERCONTINENTAL and all the major companies are our clients. We work for virtually everybody at one point or the other
What are the challenges of this business?
The main challenge is the government rate, the government is our Landlord, our billboards are on the setback of government and their policy change is really affecting us. A governor will make policy, another will come and change it, and it’s affecting us because there is no stability. If a particular brand is not consistent the clients can be weary of putting too much money in it. But all the same we are resolving this problem because most government of signage agency are now listening to us and finding ways to meet our needs. Hopefully, the challenges will be over. But of course like every other businesses in Nigeria, power is always a huge challenge, we use generator to power all the time which is not supposed to be. We imported an equipment from china and while installing we told them we were going to power it with generator, the manufacturers were amazed, they said they didn’t consider generator when manufacturing, that they thought there will be power. We have made generator household furniture; as you will see in every home, there is a special house for generator.
The case of security is another challenge, we will see our billboards vandalized, and police will pass and will look away. We have reported all this in the past to the IG, and we were told the police is over stressed that the number of police we need is 10 times what we have today in Nigeria. So basically, the government rate, power and security are top challenges.
How have you been able to handle these challenges?
Like every other businesses in Nigeria today, if you want to start a pure water company you will source for security yourself, source for power yourself, if not careful you will do the road to your factory yourself, so everybody is trying to survive somehow, but the point is, it is affecting our profit margin and it’s not encouraging people to do more. It is not peculiar to our business alone; it is a general phenomenon in Nigeria.
What do you love about your job?
All of my life i have been in Marketing communication, I also studied marketing communication and I have no regret, it’s a very flamboyant profession, very educative even though a lot of people don’t know, and it is very rewarding. I just pray that we have infrastructures in this country that will give us the opportunity to do more.
When are you open for business?
We are in business already, we are permanently in business, we work Mondays through Saturdays and some work may have us include Sundays in other to meet up deadlines.
What do you have to say to readers and potential clients?
I can only advice the young ones coming to read more, work hard, no shortcut to success. It is either you know it or you don’t know it, our economy is going intellect, so it is about what you have in your brain not your strength or physic. If you read well you will discover you can operate anywhere in the world. Then clients are the pay master, I was once a client before I started delivering services, a lot of businesses are working hard on their products, and in this time of recession we have loads of competitions and people go for the best/big brands. So if you need to excel you must package your products well. If your product is good and you don’t advertise, it means I don’t know you. This is very important. Then our banks have not been very supportive, their interest rate are too high and unreasonable, even the procedures are so difficult. If most of us have our chances we will prefer to loan abroad for any project, it is as bad as that, I also appeal to our banks to rethink and support local investors.