The new president of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria, ADVAN, Mr, David Okeme, has said his administration will focus on ensuring that the coun­try becomes the centre of attraction as far as advertising is concerned.

Speaking with journalists after the annual general meeting of the as­sociation and election of new execu­tive in Lagos recently, Okeme said, his executive will “shift the focus a bit and that shift will be moving from being a pressure group to an enabler of growth in the industry. There is a Nigeria market agenda that we have and we are going to leverage on it”.

He said Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa and when you talk about advertising platform, people tend to go south of the conti­nent but “this executive will work to make Nigeria the centre of gravity in advertising. These are real big ambi­tions and we will mobilise our part­ners to make this happen”.

Okeme lamented that about a million dollars is being spent every year on advertising, adding that “it is a very big investment but if you look at the kind of returns that we get, it shows that growth among our mem­bers is between zero and five percent.

According to him, with the high level of investment that goes into advertising, it was unfortunate that advertisers were not getting the de­sired returns promising that the as­sociation was ready to collaborate and deploy all that is necessary to en­sure clients get the desired leverage, he promised.

“So one of the things that AD­VAN will look into is how to lever­age on the industry such that we can build greater efficiency in terms of advertising returns,”

The new executives take over from the immediate past President, Kola Oyeyemi. The new executives who were elected in a contest that pitched the Brand Building Direc­tor, Unilever, David Okeme against the Executive Director, Commercial, of Promasidor Nigeria, Onyekachi Onubogu, saw the former emerging with a slim margin.

Also elected to make up the new executive committee include Joan Ihekwaba, General Manager Marketing, UACN Foods, 1st Vice President, Bimbo Alabi, Marketing Manager, SoKlin 2nd Vice-President, Bukunola Ogunnusi PR & Advert Manager, Toyota Nigeria Treasurer and Samson Oloche Marketing Man­ager, Non-Alcoholic drinks, NB Plc Publicity Secretary.

The three Ex-offcios are Toruka Osandukwo, Head, Communica­tions UBA, Osamede Uwubamen, Head of Corporate and Invest­ment, Marketing and communica­tion -StanbicIBTC and Ibraheem Awelenje Category Manager, Break­fast Cereals and Ediri Ose-Ediale re­mains the GM/Executive Secretary of the association.