Anambra State Assembly Moves to Regulate Advertisement Placements, Religious Loudspeakers, Billboards, Posters

Anambra State Government has introduced a bill into the state legislative arm seeking to repeal and establish the Anambra State Signage and Advertisement Agency, and to provide for regulation of outdoor structures for display of signage, hoarding and advertisement in Anambra state and for related purposes.
 Orient Daily reports that the Bill is to regulate indiscriminate posting of posters, billboards, and other advertisements on the streets and highways.
Reading the executive bill before it consequently passed through second reading, the House Majority Leader, Hon. Jideofor Okoye disclosed that the bill provided for constituents of a regulatory board whose member shall include the Anambra State Commissioners’ of Local Government; Information, Tourism and Culture; Environment; and representatives of 21 Local Government Areas.
According to the Majority Leader, aside increasing the state internally generated revenue, the bill shall harmonise the system of revenue collection between the state and local government areas, prevent multiple taxations, create jobs, license and censor construction and placement of any outdoor structures in any part of the state, protect the environment from potential adverse impact of advertisements and defacing, control the numbers, size and location of outdoor structures, and removal when no longer in use to avoid potential damage of lives and properties.

In their various contributions, Hon. Ikem Uzoezie, Hon Chugbo Enwezor, Hon Harford Oseke, Hon Francis Okoye, and others emphasized the need for the bill to incorporate best ways of controlling indiscriminate postings of occupational, events and celebrative/festivity/funeral posters and mounting of billboards and banners at highways, mobile advertisements at nooks and crannies of the state, directional signposts, printing and use of T-Shirts by politicians/NGOs, citing and use of loudspeakers by religious institutions, schools, and others for easy access with the owners, and prevention of miscreants from defrauding innocent citizens via such medium of communication.