In order to help the growth of the business of public relations and marketing communications, the MD/Chief Strategist of Chain Reactions Nigeria and President of the Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria, PRCAN, Israel Jaiye Opayemi has called on the Federal Government to pay more attention to the industry by protecting it against what he described as unethical practices by some multinationals.
Mr. Opayemi said this while feeding questions from the press at the PRCAN 2023 Annual Economic Outlook held last Friday at the Alliance Frencaise/Mike Adenuga Center, Osborne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.
The PRCAN president explained that the stringent payment policies by some multinationals are killing businesses. He said, “The industry is challenged and one of the purposes of the forum is to call on the government. Everywhere we go, the government takes certain protectionist steps to protect significant segments of its own economy.
“When you look at the growth rate of the service industry and its contribution to the GDP of Nigeria over the last 2 years, you will see that the service industry has been doing great and we as public relations and communication consultants are significant players in the service industry, we don’t want to be the catalyst that changes things but doesn’t change itself. As we are talking about the growth of the service industry, we also want to see evidence of the growth in our businesses.
“I think the government should step in because there are a lot of multinationals operating in Nigeria today who are introducing strange payment policies that are killing the businesses of players in the marketing communications industry. For example, people work for you and they don’t get paid until after 90, or 120 days, we don’t pay our staff as such and the practice should not be condoned. The government and the ministry of trade and investment, ministry of finance must do something about this. It’s almost like they are using the resources of marketing communications companies to service their own business. If you want a loan, go to the bank at an interest rate, and don’t use the resources of marketing companies to service yours at interest-free.
Speaking on the projections for businesses in the face of the 2023 general election, Opayemi said, “Expectedly, every election year there is a reluctance on the part of businesses to make a bold move because they want to see the outcome of the election. Once a new government has been sworn-in and businesses see that there won’t be significant changes, then we are bound to see a spike in the rate of marketing activities that will support players in the marketing communications sector of the economy.”