Nigeria has banned foreign models and actors from advertising campaigns

Nigeria has made a decision that will revolutionize its advertising industry (worth €450 million in 2021) and could also infect the field of fashion and communications more generally: as of October 1, it will ban the use of foreign models and voice actors in advertisements. The news came directly from the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Information and Culture with a statement on Twitter sharing the ban by the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ACRON): "All ads, promotional and marketing communication materials must use only Nigerian models and pop artists."

As Steve Babaeko, director of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria explained to the Economic Times, for many years advertisements aired in Nigeria have featured white actors and are narrated by people with British accents. Native brands often used foreign faces, while international companies simply imported their global campaigns. Today, a burgeoning sense of national pride and the desire to proudly claim one's roots and defend one's identity has "people will tell you, ‘There are about 200 million of us. Are you telling me you could not find indigenous models for this commercial?" 

This "new sense of pride," especially prevalent among the younger population, has created fertile ground for the decision of the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, which, with its latest measure, does not aim to close itself off from the West, but hopes to promote local talent that will be able to drive the growth of Nigeria's advertising industry and the country's economy in general in the future. The ban on foreign models will become effective Oct. 1, which coincides with Independence Day from the United Kingdom, and comes after a long transition period in which companies had to pay a surcharge of 100,000 Naira (about 240 euros) for each foreign model used in their advertisements. 

One of the first agencies to comply with the new law was Britain's AMV BBDO, which has already shot an African campaign for Guinness, "Black Shines Brightest," in Lagos with a Nigerian director and local models. This is just one example that testifies to the change taking place in the country's advertising industry and leads us to wonder if other states will follow Nigeria's example by implementing a measure that favors more indigenous creative projects.