The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) in collaboration with the Advertising Association of Ghana (AAG) will from January 16, undertake a decongestion and de-cluttering exercise in the city of Accra.

This is aimed at sanitising the out of home advertising space by removing haphazardly placed and unpermitted billboards and signages.

These billboards and signages according to the two organisations have become a nuisance, a threat to public safety and a confusing element of the urban form.

The AMA and AAG further note that all permits for billboards and signages expired at the end of December 2017 and renewals will be based on the new SMART Out of Home Advertising Policy and Procedures. 

These policies were developed after exhaustive consultations with industry and concerned stakeholders and outdoored in November last year by the Accra Mayor Mohammed Adjei Sowah and the President of AAG, Joel Edmund Nettey. 

The policies were adopted by AMA at the 10th Ordinary Meeting of the 2nd Session of the 6th Assembly held on December 20, last year.

Categories of Signages and Billboards to be affected include all unauthorised billboards and signages.

Also, billboards and signages causing clutter and congestion at traffic intersections and junctions will be affected.

Others are Median Signs, dilapidated and unmaintained billboards and signages, dilapidated and unmaintained Bus Stop shelters, and Bus Stop Signs

Also, flagpoles placed on pedestrian walkways will be taken off.