Ufot

Ufot
Ufot

The organisers of the Brand As King Awards has appointed the Chairman of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Mr Ufot Udeme as the chair of the award ceremony billed for November 15. Leading the team to intimate Udeme of his appointment last week, the chief host of the award, Mrs. Maureen Umanah, said that aside being the chairman of APCON, Udeme has been a good supporter of the award and the publication, Billboardworld magazine that gave birth to the award.
“As we prepare for Season 5 of this most compelling industry award, we are highly delighted to request that you be the chairman of this year’s event. We are pleased to inform you that this award has grown in leaps and bounds and has even assumed an international status with its fourth edition held in the city of Accra, Ghana, in 2013.
“It is our own modest contribution as a CSR initiative aimed at the sustenance and growth of the Outdoor subsector. As a responsible organisation, we have successfully done this since the inception of Billboardworld magazine in 2007. It is an industry-based publication aimed at helping to bridge communication gap between practitioners of the various subsectors within the advertising fray and also between practitioners and their publics.
“Along the line, we also saw the need to promote and celebrate those organisations and individuals who have worked tirelessly and contributed positively to the growth and development of advertising practice in Nigeria. Hence, the commencement and hosting of the Brand as king Award in 2008, though then known as Big Ads Award.”
Ufot thanked the Brand As King team for taking time to intimate him of the award and also finding him worthy to chair this year’s event. The SO&U boss, however, said that his chairmanship of APCON is with some form of uncertainty especially with the recent dissolution of boards of parastatals by President Muhammadu Buhari. He said that though APCON board ought to enjoy the same privilege other professional bodies like engineering enjoys, as they were not affected by the order but enquiries made from the supervising ministry of APCON, the Ministry of Information was not definite.
Udeme also highlighted some bold steps being taken by the council before the order from the president. He talked about the plans to buy equipment that would help APCON monitor all adverts on radio and television and the board had even visited the manufacturer of the equipment including mobilising to get the fund to procure it.
Ironically, this is coming barely two years after APCON came out of a recession as a result of the eligibility of the person appointed earlier as the Chairman of council. With this, no doubt, the body has gone into another recession again.