By Archibong Jeremiah
Stanley Nsemo-Livingstone, Director General, Cross River State Signage and Advertisement Agency (CRISSA) has disclosed that, “Virtually 80% of the bill boards in Cross River are not built by Cross Riverians, they are assembled in Cross River but not by Cross Riverians and people come from Lagos or Port Harcourt to install all this things”.
He made the revelation recently in his office while speaking with our reporter, he went on to question, “Why don’t we train our people in these skills, they are rear and specialized skills you have for the rest of your life”.
According to the CRISSA DG, as a panacea, “We are already talking to fabricators in Calabar, we have already called for some of these local businesses to submit proposals and we will work with them, we will send them for training in Lagos where they will learn how to manufacture these bill boards for and in Cross River State and the operators will see that they can be cheaply made in Cross River State.
“If we can get our people into fabrication of bill boards, lightings of bill boards, into even content development, talk about conceptual, intellectual work which is a brand new path, the State economy will improve. We want a cottage industry that will have positive multiplier effects on the State”, he maintained.
Nsemo-Livingstone further disclosed that, “When I first resumed, the challenges I identified was that the processes and the polices where not stream lined, the staff were under motivated especially the adhoc staff, they felt as though they weren’t carried along in the general direction, a lot of them felt lost, understanding that we have a concession agreement with CPMS (Chris Parks Marketing Solution) for collections, the staff felt as though they were not part of the whole progress of signage and advertisement in the State”.
In addressing the afore mentioned challenges he said, “One of the first things I did, was to sit back and have a meeting with the concessionaires and discussed how we can work a bit more together and we have been trying to consolidate our efforts to yield better results. I made sure that flow of reports is free and very clear.
“I made my colleagues understand that what we are doing is not just revenue collection but adding value to the State through aesthetics and proper regulations, something that will now translate to financial revenue down the line. What I’ve done is to translate the governor’s vision to my staff and the role they and signage play, what people don’t understand is that the aesthetics of a State is dependent on signage regulations and how tidy it is”, he said.
After revealing that he has been in the advertisement world for over fifteen years he added that “I started my own business advertisement in 2007 and I grew that business from one man business to multi-national business. Setting up this agency, I was in the background, I worked with the former DG, Godwin Iyala, who is an excellent man”.
The DG asserted that his major interest is to “build a systematic cottage industry in the signage sector that will translate into jobs, real sector growth with more specialized jobs in the signage and advertisement sphere in Cross River State. We are working with the Outdoor Association of Nigeria to host the AGM (Annual General Meeting) here. We are inviting investors to come see the beautiful things we are doing and key in, we are remodelling our outdoor sector”.
He ended by calling on Cross Riverians to support the present administration.
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