…. as unapproved ads flood online
Nine months after the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) introduced additional vetting processes to curb the use of online adverts for scams, questions are arising whether the policy is achieving its intended aim.
The May 2025 directive, signed by ARCON Director General Olalekan Fadolapo, required influencers, content creators and advertisers — online and offline — to secure approval before exposing any advert. The move followed the viral “CBEX scam” in which Nigerians reportedly lost an estimated N1.3 trillion.
ARCON warned that any individual or entity that published unapproved adverts would face investigation and possible sanctions from the Advertising Offences Tribunal. To comply, advertisers submit materials for vetting and pay fees ranging from N7,500 for a seven-day review to N100,000 for a 24-hour fast-track approval.
ARCON had, in 2022, tried mandating influencers and bloggers/vloggers to get advert approval, but could not due to issues of jurisdiction. A Federal High Court ruling in April 2025 finally remedied the situation, declaring that the Council had the legal authority to regulate advertising across all media platforms—including traditional outlets like print and broadcast, as well as digital and social media.
ARCON then issued the directive mandating influencers and all content creators to obtain prior approval before publishing any advert. Months later, BusinessDay checks show that the policy may have produced consequences beyond its original intent.
A scale problem
Nigeria is home to roughly 40 million registered Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), according to Moniepoint Business statistics. This excludes thousands of social media influencers, content creators and informal businesses that rely on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and X to reach customers.
For many of these businesses, social media remains the most cost-effective marketing channel, giving access to more than 31.6 million Nigerians online. If even a fraction of these enterprises run monthly campaigns, ARCON could theoretically be required to vet tens of millions of advert materials each month.
Whether the regulator has the operational capacity to manage that scale remains unclear. There is no public source to verify the number of staff with ARCON, but the regulator’s official LinkedIn account says “11 to 50 employees” with at least 14 employees working in Lagos state.
The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), in its 2025 BFA Performance Report evaluating 69 Ministries, Departments and Agencies for compliance with the Business Facilitation Act of 2022, ranked ARCON last with a total score of 3 percent. PEBEC said it used automated reporting tools, mystery shopping tests and grievance tracking to assess compliance.
For an agency tasked with streamlining regulatory processes, the ranking raises concerns about service efficiency, especially as the volume of digital advertising continues to expand.
In a media response, ARCON DG, described PEBEC’s ranking as “unsurprisingly biased” and vastly different from another performance report published by the Ministry of Information and National Orientation report.
“The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) is an ally of ADVAN. It is not shocking and surprising that it scored ARCON 3%. ARCON has had engagement with PEBEC, where it was obvious that PEBEC is not only biased but has made attempts to intervene in ARCON’s oversight responsibility with the intention to decimate ARCON. So the report is part of the overall strategy to blackmail and manipulate opinions against ARCON,” Fadolapo stated.
Industry backlash grows
Industry frustration is also becoming visible. In an open letter to the President published on page 13 of the Punch on Tuesday 10 February 2026, the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) said ARCON’s guidelines had worsened bottlenecks for businesses. According to the association, even advertisers who paid N100,000 for fast-track vetting still experienced delays.
ADVAN cited arbitrary vetting and promotion fees, unclear processes on ARCON’s website, inconsistent vetting decisions and creative restrictions that weaken brand communication. The association warned that advertising spend has dropped sharply as brands reduce or cancel campaigns, with ripple effects across media, creative services and allied sectors.
Given that ADVAN’s membership includes many publicly listed companies and several large corporations, the concerns point to broader economic implications beyond industry inconvenience.
In a chat with BusinessDay, Osamede Uwubanmwen, the ADVAN President, explained that the current structure, in which ARCON meets once a month, does not provide for accelerated vetting. “How are they supposed to form a quorum to approve your adverts after you have paid for fast track to have it approved?” he questioned.
Uwubanmwen noted that what obtains is that advertisers make payment for vetting, and have to wait for the council to sit and issue the certificate of approval.
“When we make payment, they could say we have seen your payment, we have seen your advert materials, but that does not translate to approval. If we go ahead to advertise like that, when there are issues, we don’t have any document to show that we obtained approval,” he explained.
The vetting procedure, as detailed on the ARCON website, states that provisions are made available for 4, 8 and 16 working hours accelerated vetting, but the ADVAN president insisted that the ASP has not increased its meeting schedule from once a month to accommodate the accelerated vetting requests.
He described the situation as highly restraining, with many members having to modify their marketing campaign schedules and budget spends. “It’s like trying to run with someone holding your two legs. And it has serious implications for businesses because how do you make sales or introduce new products to the market without proper marketing?” he queried.
Keep in mind that ARCON recently declared that states were not legally authorised to vet or approve advertising materials at any level, even for signages and billboards.
Enforcement in practice
Yet while established brands report compliance costs and delays, many other adverts appear to continue running online without ARCON approval. Several small business owners told BusinessDay they still create and run adverts on Instagram, Facebook and X without obtaining certificates of approval. Social media platforms do not require ARCON vetting certificates as part of their advert approval processes, leaving compliance largely at the advertiser’s discretion.
One digital marketer, who requested anonymity, said she had heard about the rules but did not know how it worked, and had never been required to use them.
“I create my advert material and run the ads on Facebook and Instagram. I don’t think the rule is for small businesses because I don’t know anyone who has had to go through that process. I think it is more for the big businesses and maybe influencers,” she said.
This creates an uneven compliance landscape: larger firms, with reputational and regulatory exposure, appear more likely to comply, while smaller or informal advertisers operate largely outside the system.
BusinessDay reached ARCON to find out how the regulator intends to address the issues, but as at the time of publishing, ARCON had yet to respond to inquiries.
The deepfake dilemma
The gap becomes more visible in the proliferation of AI-generated deepfake adverts. Public figures including; Bola Tinubu, President of Nigeria; Ibukun Awosika, former board Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria Plc; Fela Durotoye, a Leadership coach; Tosin Olaseinde, founder of Money Africa; Seun Okinbaloye, TV presenter; and Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), have appeared in manipulated promotional videos promising unrealistic financial returns.
These videos circulate not only as sponsored adverts but also via Telegram groups, Instagram reels and WhatsApp forwards — channels that fall into regulatory grey zones.
In the May 2025 statement that introduced the latest vetting processes, ARCON said, “Let all those who are involved in the business of persuasion know: ARCON is watching, and the law will be enforced.” But with so many deepfake ads now on social media, there is a question as to how effective this watch could be.
In September 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) acknowledged that the advanced technology behind deepfakes had outpaced traditional detection methods, calling for tech-enabled regulation and inter-agency collaboration.
With even financial regulators acknowledging their technological limitations, questions arise about ARCON’s ability to monitor the full digital advertising ecosystem.
Legal pressure on platforms
Recall that in 2023, ARCON filed a $44 million lawsuit against Meta Platforms Incorporated, owners of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, alleging that the company allowed unvetted adverts to run in violation of Nigerian law. A similar N30 billion suit filed in 2022 was later withdrawn after lingering for two years without trial.
Despite these legal moves, platform-level enforcement mechanisms still do not integrate ARCON approval certificates into advert submission workflows. This leaves the burden of compliance largely on the advertisers discretion — creating a system where the compliant minority may bear the regulatory weight, while millions of ads continue unchecked.
What obtains elsewhere
As social media advertising expands, regulators globally are grappling with how to protect consumers from misleading content and outright scams. The question is not whether regulation is necessary, but whether mandatory pre-approval of every advert is the most effective approach.
BusinessDay checks suggest that Nigeria’s blanket pre-approval requirement is unusually broad compared with peer jurisdictions.
In Ghana, pre-approval applies primarily to regulated sectors such as food, drugs, betting and gambling. For other adverts, enforcement relies on consumer protection laws that prohibit misleading promotions across all media. Approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suffices where required.
In Kenya, the Advertising Standards Board of Kenya (ASBK) enforces the Code of Advertising Practice under the Kenya Information and Communications Act. The framework applies across digital platforms, but there is no blanket pre-clearance system. Instead, adverts are reviewed after exposure if complaints arise, with sanctions ranging from withdrawals to fines. Political and broadcast advertising fall under additional scrutiny by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK).
Egypt also operates a post-publication enforcement model. The Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR) oversees advertising across print, broadcast and digital media, while the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) regulates digital communications. Influencers and large social media accounts must register for licensing, and sector-specific approvals apply for sensitive industries. However, pre-approval is not required for all online adverts. Violations can lead to withdrawals, fines, licence suspensions or revocations.
In South Africa, the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) enforces the Code of Advertising Practice and a dedicated Social Media Code. The system relies on post-publication enforcement, supported by broader legislation such as the Consumer Protection Act, the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act and the Protection of Personal Information Act. While pre-approval is not mandatory, penalties for non-compliance can range from modest fines to substantial financial sanctions.
Across these jurisdictions, the emphasis is consistent: adverts must be truthful, transparent and non-misleading. Prior approvals are typically reserved for high-risk sectors such as pharmaceuticals, gambling or political advertising. Broad, universal pre-vetting of all online adverts is uncommon.
In Nigeria, there is also the general requirement for all advertising materials to be truthful, decent, culturally sensitive and non-misleading, while abiding with the local content provisions as required and clearly disclose sponsored content. Under the ARCON Act of 2022, practitioners are to register with the regulator, but it is emphasised that every advert must undergo pre-exposure vetting, or risk fines and other sanctions from the ARCON tribunal.
The comparison raises a broader policy question: whether Nigeria’s approach is proportionate to the risk it seeks to address, or whether a more targeted, tech-enabled system would deliver better outcomes with fewer distortions.
