KMA, AAG to pull down unauthorised billboards in Kumasi

All outdoor advertising signages within the Kumasi metropolis that do not meet set standards are to be pulled down.

The joint exercise, to be undertaken by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) and the Advertisers Association of Ghana (AAG), is to ensure that all outdoor billboards meet safety standards.

The decision was taken by a joint technical committee of the AAG and the KMA, after they had inspected some of the billboards in the metropolis. 

Averting disasters

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the KMA Engineer, Mr Emmanuel Anderson, explained that the move was to avert disasters.

Last month, after a meeting between the executive members of the AAG and the KMA Chief Executive, Mr Osei Assibey-Antwi,  a joint technical committee was set up to look into issues of the haphazardly and dangerously mounted billboards.

Apart from stopping the billboards from falling on electricity and telephone lines, the KMA also seeks to derive revenue from the sector and create employment for the youth.

Mr Anderson said in line with the exercise, the committee would vet all such billboards to ensure that they were of high quality and properly sited in areas that would not pose danger to the public.

He said the tour exposed the team to the substandard nature of some of the signages and the fact that some of them were erected in areas that tended to mar the beauty of the metropolis.

No authorisation

Mr Anderson said the assembly had not issued any authorisation for the erection of billboards since the beginning of the year.

That, he explained, was to help streamline the processes and to get adequate revenue, as well as to facilitate proper monitoring of outdoors signages.

AAG

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Executive Director of the AAG, Mr Francis Dadzie, reiterated the association’s stand that outdoor signages must conform to the standards contained in the recently gazetted standards by the Ghana Standards Authority.

He explained that the collaboration with the assembly would also inure to the benefit of companies and individuals who advertised.

Consultant

An Environment and Rural Development Consultant attached to the KMA, Dr Kojo Yeboah, said the removal of the signages was in tandem with the long-term decongestion and beautification of the city.

He said the assembly would undertake the programmes taking into consideration the welfare and concerns of the people.