By Ayoni M. Agbabiaka
In its continuous drive to generate more revenue in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) the FCT administration
which created the Department of Outdoor advertising and Signange (DOAS) in 2013 will now be benefiting from the yield to the tune of N1 billion annually.
This was revealed yesterday as the Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, flagged off the exercise for the enumeration of advertising signs and hoardings in the Federal Capital City and the six area councils of Abuja.
According to her, the main objectives of this project include improving the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) profile of the FCT administration, sanitising its environment and checking impunity in the practice.
She said: “The exercise is being carried out through the deployment of customised bicycles manned by Youth Corps Members who have been trained in data gathering.
“As a pilot exercise, it will cover three major three major areas of the city centre- Maitama District, Airport Road and Bill Clinton Drive as well as some selected area of the six area council of the FCT. It also entails a head count of all first and third party advertisements identified in various districts.”
Akinjide pointed out that in order to ensure an effective and efficient operation of the department, there was a strong need to create the Inventory Management Permits, Reporting and Tracking System (IMPRTS). A software solution aimed at effectively managing outdoor advertisement business in the FCT.
“In effect, that is what gave birth to the growing technical partnership between DOAS and GeoQynetiq, the developer of the IT solution.”
She urged the department to maximise the opportunity offered by its partnership with Afromedia and GeoQynetiq Ltd to learn the ropes and acquire the needed capacity to work towards a better service delivery.
She appealed to all stakeholders to mobilise support for the DOAS towards the realisation of the laudable goals of the department as this will lead to the sanitisation of the outdoor advertising industry in the FCT.
Speaking earlier, the Director of FCT Department of Outdoor Advertisement and Signages, Alhaji Ibrahim Yusuf, said the department expects to generate N1billion with the enumeration of signages and hoardings in Abuja before the end of 2015.
He said: “Well, for a start we are already targeting a billion Naira. You know we started late with zero take off grant. We had limited staff and vehicles and that’s why our operation is limited to AMAC. But the honourable has given us the go ahead to cover the six area councils.”