The Director-General of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo, has said that unregulated digital advertisement has a devastating impact on Nigerian consumers.
He reiterated the commitment of the council to continually engage with industry stakeholders towards an ethical advertising landscape in Nigeria.
He spoke at the Advertising Sector Groups (ASP) Stakeholders Forum held in Lagos at the weekend.
Fadolapo cited the recent CBEX scandal that allegedly cost Nigerians between N1.2 and N1.5 trillion, alongside other cases involving AI-generated celebrity endorsements and property investment scams, which have left thousands of Nigerians financially devastated.
The DG stated that the advertising landscape has expanded far beyond the physical boundaries of traditional media.
“Digital economy is now huge. Every element of the physical market is now present in the digital economy. As a regulator, one of the challenges is for us to ensure that both traditional and digital economies comply with responsible advertising practices.
“While in traditional media or markets, it’s about physical address, it’s about location. But when you move into the digital economy, it’s beyond your geographical location. Somebody can sit down in another market and do advertising in your market.”
The DG also drew attention to the proliferation of dubious financial services advertisements on social media platforms.
“If you open TikTok now, before you scroll down for two videos, you will see adverts of financial services offering so many discounts or claims that cannot be substantiated,” he observed.
Also speaking at the event, Mr. Lanre Adisa, Chairman, Heads of Advertising Sectoral Groups, reflected on the historical evolution of advertising regulation in Nigeria.
He noted that while ARCON has brought structure to the industry, the scale of today’s digital environment demands a shift toward more effective frameworks.
He suggested a hybrid model where artificial intelligence can complement human regulators.
“We need to keep building on what we’re doing now, but we should start moving gradually towards some kind of self-regulation. There is a need for technology that can help. And it’s not in any way going to exclude the current regulators. If anything, it’s going to strengthen it, so they can spend less time and regulate in a smarter way.”
Dr. Emmanuel Agu, Chairman of the Advertising Standards Panel (ASP), expressed deep concern over the rising trend of unethical advertising in Nigeria, particularly across digital platforms.
He noted that many advertisers use exaggerated claims in a bid to go viral, without providing factual backing.
According to him, such practices mislead the public and undermine ethical standards in the industry.
“One of the challenges we have with ethical advertising is that there are a lot of fictitious claims and they are not good for public consumption. For every word or copy that you put out there, it has to be factual. You have to substantiate it so that the public will be sure of what they are consuming. Ethics is very important in advertising,” he said.
Agu also emphasised the need for technology to help regulators keep up with the volume of digital content being produced daily.
