ACCRA, Nov. 14 – A nationwide inspection and enforcement exercise against illegal billboards begins today, Saturday, with structures that breach standards and regulations facing demolition, the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs has said.
In a press release dated November 13, Minister Mahama Ayariga confirmed that the exercise would start as scheduled, MyJoyOnline reported. It is being carried out with the Advertising Association of Ghana (AAG) and other institutions to improve public safety and enforce the rules on outdoor advertising.
Billboard owners and outdoor advertising companies had until Friday, November 13, to identify their structures by displaying their names and company details. The Ministry warned that any billboard found to violate the required standards would be pulled down, and appealed to owners, advertisers and the public to cooperate.
Even permitted billboards at risk
Announcing the exercise on November 6, Mr Ayariga directed Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives to submit records of companies and individuals authorised to erect billboards, along with their approved locations, the Ghana News Agency (GNA) reported.
He said unidentified billboards and those at unauthorised locations would be removed, and that even billboards with valid permits would come down if they were found at locations different from those approved by the assemblies. According to GNA, scrap from dismantled structures will be handed to the Scrap Dealers Association for sale, while assemblies will be billed for the cost of removal.
Structures are being measured against standards set by the Ghana Standards Authority, which Mr Ayariga said are available on the websites of the GSA and the Advertisers Association.
‘Between 40 and 60 per cent illegal’
AAG President Andrew Ackah told the Citi Breakfast Show on November 4 that the association had counted more than 10,000 advertising structures in Accra. “We realised that between 40 to 60 per cent of these billboards are illegal because they flout those rules,” he said, citing breaches of traffic and building regulations and concerns about structural integrity.
Mr Ayariga has also said the government will work with advertisers to move from wooden and metal billboards to electronic displays and limit the number of billboards at each junction. “I will give directives to the assemblies to pull down all the illegal ones,” he told Citi FM.
Accra Mayor Michael Kpakpo Allotey has welcomed the directive, saying the Accra Metropolitan Assembly had already begun identifying unauthorised billboards, some of which were erected at night, GNA reported.
Sources: Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs (via MyJoyOnline), Ghana News Agency, Citi Newsroom.
Featured image: Billboards along the Accra–Tema Motorway. Photo: Blaise Daniel Korley Ahumah / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).