"It Is Imperative To Gather Information On PR Practice In Nigeria" - John Ehiguese's Address At #NigeriaPRReport

"Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen. 

As we speak right now, there is almost nothing about Nigeria in the Holmes Report. Consistently for the past 3 years, there has only been one PR agency from Africa in the world’s top 250 and it is in South Africa. I do not think if the Nigerian PR industry data was collated and analysed, that Nigeria is actually that far down, but the point is that information does not exist. I met Paul Holmes recently and I asked him about his plans for our work in Nigeria and Africa and he told me “We have no information on Africa so it is difficult to rank”.

So there is an absolute imperative for us to begin to gather information and process and index such information about PR practice in Nigeria. Paul Holmes sent out a questionnaire to Nigerian PR practitioners last year, which I filled. Here in Nigeria, we tried to get practitioners to fill out a questionnaire, and only about half of the people we sent it to actually responded. Until we start to respond, we cannot be in the global space. As one of the top 10 emerging economies in the world, Nigeria has no excuse to not have a presence in the international PR space.

Furthermore, we are hemorrhaging talent. We are losing talent to the client side and other players in the Integrated Marketing Communications sphere. Young people – or ‘millennials’ as it is now fashionable to call them –  are not patient enough. The young person coming in wants to drive a BMW in five years, then a Range Rover after that, and then buy a house in Lekki Phase 1. This by the way, is a global phenomenon not peculiar to Nigeria. The perception is that PR is not profitable. “How many people can build a career in PR and aspire to live on Banana Island and Lekki Phase 1?” So we have a challenge to build this business. We have to change our mindset and realise we all have a responsibility to grow this business and make it attractive so that people can start to recognize what we do and pay competitive rates.

Let me tell you this – PR is not dead. In fact PR is on the ascendancy. You will be hard pressed to find any other profession where the practitioner has to be so multifaceted – the PR practitioner must be a data analyst, videographer, creative writer, researcher, etc.

I have an affiliation with a South African firm with 75 staff on their books. Of this number, 60 are core PR staff. Why is the story different in Nigeria. Some cynics might believe that Ayeni is doing this purely out of self-promotion but so what? He has done this entirely from his pocket and I want to congratulate Ayeni and his team. This report will be a very useful resource particularly when going for international conferences from now on."

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BHM is Nigeria's leading Media and Public Relations Agency, using traditional and digital techniques to deliver best-possible results for clients and partners. Operating from Lagos in Nigeria and London in UK, BHM delivers the best possible results in a system that’s full of promises.