Billboard/Signage: Delta Flags off ‘Operation Remedy’

Committed to its core mandate of controlling,  regulating, monitoring and inspection of all outdoor structures and platforms used for signage and advertising, particularly, ensuring strict compliance with the provisions of the law,  the Delta State Government, yesterday, flagged off what it called ‘Operation Remedy’.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Delta State Signage and Advertising Agency (DESAA), Mr. Kenneth Onyemaka who disclosed this during a media briefing on the activities of the Agency, said that the agency decided to launch ‘Operation Remedy’ as part of deliberate measures aimed at sanitizing the entire signage and billboard landscape in the state.

Onyemaka while addressing the press during the briefing held at the DESAA Corporate office in Asaba, the state capital, said that hone were the days when government would be losing its revenue on account of inappropriate practices, stressing that he agency, among other things is irrevocably committed to beefing up the Internally Generated Revenue ( IGR) Matrix of the state.

According to Onyemaka,  the Operation Remedy which was officially launched yesterday, would be realizable through the A.I.D.S strategy planks Which includes;  (A); Auditing the entire landscape,  (I) Initiating full scale remedial measures (D) Drive for revenue and (S) Sustaining the growth momentum through innovative Private-Public Partnerships, CSR initiative/Idea.  

Giving further breakdown on the planned modalities, the DESAA Boss said, “in the 'A' (audit) strategy, we will ensure that through a comprehensive audit exercise, we will be able to determine the precise number or active and viable boards/signage in the state and their owners.

We will be able to create a data base of genuine operators as well as establish real and guaranteed income stream to support and achieve revenue and budgeting”.

He said that the agency is working assiduously to initiate a centrally operating environment that would eliminate clusters of boards in the state, insist on board upgrade as well as ensure that boards, henceforth were mandatorily located in an orderly and eye-pleasing fashion.

This, he explained, would ensure overall environmental aesthetics through sustained landscaping and beautification efforts. 

On plans to help in beefing up the IGR index of the state, the DESAA boss said, “We will midwife DESAA into  Advert (Ad) engine room for growth and key contributor to government IGR matrix” just as he added that the agency is poised at sustaining the growth momentum through innovative ideas. 

"Today operation remedy is officially flagged off. It consists of a wide range of re medial measures which include sensitization, advocacy, consultations and stakeholders' engagements, regulation and enforcement, beautification efforts as well as database creation.

Creating a comprehensive database would be a sensible starting get point and what is needed to achieve that is the enumeration exercise.

This exercise entails the physical counting of all signage and billboards across the state to determine the actual number of structures, their ownership and size of revenue attainable”, Onyemaka stressed.

To achieve these however, the DESAA boss while appealing for support and partnership from the various relevant stakeholders, particularly the various local governments in driving this vision just as he reaffirmed the Agency's commitment towards ensuring a holistic overhauling of the entire signage and billboard landscape across the various cities of the state, said, “for violators, those who will not comply, we will be firm”.

Cross section of DESAA field officers

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