The growing mess in the outdoor sector, especially in big cities across Ghana, is finally receiving some serious attention by key industry players and regulators.

The out-of-home (OOH) sector has come into focus recently as public outcry against the sprawling recklessness in that sector is becoming louder. The Advertising Association of Ghana (AAG) has, in the past years, joined regulators like the Ghana Standards Authority to produce the Advertising Standardization Guidelines with the intention to create some level of sanity and orderliness in respect of erection and management of billboards in the country, among other areas within the broader advertising space. The outdooring of that document, however, has not realized the intended purpose, especially for the outdoor advertising sector

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Proactive regulation and practical enforcement of the provisions in the guidelines has been a tough nut to crack. However, with the proactiveness of the new Director-General of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Abraham Amaliba, and the technical industry savviness of the Advertising Association of Ghana, that problem could soon be over soon. At a crucial meeting initiated by the Executive Director of AAG, Isaac Cudjoe, together with the NRSA, the two bodies are currently working on a practical plan that would soon produce some proactive actions to clean up the mess created by the irregular mounting of billboards in the country’s big cities.

A joint technical team has been formed by the two bodies to produce a workable roadmap to tackle the messy canker within the outdoor sector believed to have been caused by “ghost” billboard owners and individuals who do not belong to the AAG; but have entered that sector without any intention to comply with existing regulations and guidelines within the industry.