The Advertising Association of Ghana has bemoaned the near-collapse of the industry as the sector has been one of the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

President of the Association, Mensah Togbor, disclosed this at the association’s 29th Annual General Meeting under the theme, “Advertising beyond Covid-19: Reintegrating Agencies, Brands and Consumers.”

The Advertising Association of Ghana said the industry almost came to a standstill during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Mr. Mensah, agencies have had to streamline their budgets and that affected their cash flows.

“Any industry especially in our industry advertising, when there’s a problem the first thing every company does is to cut marketing budgets. In January people had good budgets then all of a sudden in February, COVID-19 came. I don’t know anyone who didn’t suffer.

"We all suffered. Budgets were cut, some 80 percent, least was 40 percent but most were 80, 60 percent because the companies didn’t even know that they would continue to work. Therefore our industry was at the edge of total collapse,” he said.    

The Advertising Association of Ghana expressed worry about the absence of the Bill which it described was breeding unregulated and unprofessional activities in the advertising sector.

“Like any other industries, there are rules governing it. There are rules, you cannot just get up because you have been to school and you can read and write. You set up an agency with you and your wife with no qualifications then you start. Because what you do as an agency impacts on the nation, people so you have to do it professionally. So, there are rules guiding it.”

“Again, if you’re an outdoor producing company, you install billboards, there are rules in the industry. For example, now you see a lot of billboards everywhere because the rules are not approved by parliament.

"So, once we have the bill like any other country like Nigeria, South Africa, Europe there are rules but now because there’s no bill, anyone can get up and do whatever they want.”