Nigeria’s advertising industry recorded media spend of N97.9 billion in 2015 against the N93.1 billion recorded in 2014; representing an increase of 5.2 per cent.
This information is contained in the just-released 2015 Mediafacts, a key media resource for marketing professionals in West and Central Africa. According to the publication, produced annually by mediaReach OMD, a specialist media company that provides media planning, buying, control and inventory management services, “The 2014/2015 electioneering campaigns and the successful change in government may have positively impacted on the advertising spends in 2015 as it records a positive growth of about N4.8 billion over 2014 total media spend.”
The report revealed that television stations attracted the highest advertising expenditure of N39 billion last year, a figure that represents 40% of the total media spend. Mediafacts therefore put the advertising expenditure that went to the print media, outdoor and radio stations at N23.7 billion, N20.1 billion and N15.1 billion; respectively.
The advertising spend on the print media in 2015 was N23.7 billion, representing a marginal decline of 4% compared with N25.8 billion in 2014. Similarly, the advertising expenditure of N20.1 billion attracted by Outdoor last year was lower than N20.5 billion recorded in 2014. Mediafacts further revealed that the TV and Radio stations in Nigeria attracted more advertising income of N39.0 billion and N15.1 billion respectively in 2015 compared to N34.6 billion and N12.1 billion they recorded the previous year.
The publication further revealed that advertisers spent N23 billion in each of the first and second quarters of 2015, while their media spend in the third and fourth quarters stood at N29.8 billion and N22.1 billion. “The highest spend for 2015 was recorded in Quarter 3 (N29.8 billion), representing 30% of the total spend,” the report stated.
In the regional analysis of the media spend, Lagos attracted the highest advertising spend for 2015. The state got N53.1 billion followed by the North Central (N12.1 billion), South West (N10.2 billion) and South South (N10 billion).
“The highest spend for 2015 was recorded in Lagos, 54%, followed by North Central (12%), while North East took the rear position. The paltry spend, less than 1% in the North East was traceable to the space of insurgency in the region”, the Mediafacts stated.
Mr. Tolu Ogunkoya, Managing Director/CEO of mediaReach OMD, said “Nigeria’s media is one of the most vibrant in Africa. State radio and TV have near-national coverage and operate at federal and regional levels. All 36 states run at least one radio network and a TV station. There are hundreds of radio stations and terrestrial TV networks, as well as cable and direct-to-home satellite offerings.”
According to him, television viewing in Nigeria is concentrated in urban areas. “There are more than 100 national and local press titles, some of them are state-owned. They include well-respected dailies, tabloids and publications which champion ethnic interests. By 2014, 70.3 million Nigerians were online (Internetworldstats.com). Mobile phones are commonly used to access the web. Most Internet users are young, educated and urban”, he stated.
Ogunkoya noted that Nigeria’s economy is the largest in Africa while its manufacturing sector is the third largest on the continent producing a large proportion of goods and services for the West African sub region.
His words: “The Nigerian environment which is characterised with many investment opportunities seems to be the most attractive for foreign investors because of its liberal economic climate due to the following reasons:
- The economy has been liberalised for full open market
- 100% foreign participation is now allowed in all sectors
- Privatisation programmes and industrial development encouraged
- Profit repatriation allowed
- All laws that inhibit full functioning of a deregulated, free enterprise and market driven economy were removed from stature books.”
Following the April 2014 statistical “rebasing” exercise, he stated, Nigeria has emerged as Africa’s largest economy, with 2015 GDP estimated at US$1.1 trillion. Ogunkoya said: “Oil has been a dominant source of income and government revenues since the 1970s. Following the 2008-2009 global financial crises, the banking sector was effectively recapitalised and regulation enhanced. Nigeria’s economic growth over the last five years has been driven by growth in agriculture, telecommunications and services.”
He said: “the report gives in-depth coverage of Nigeria and Ghana’s media markets. Media practitioners in the West and Central African regions, and companies making inroads into the markets in these regions would find this publication useful”.
