STMA to remove unauthorised billboards

The Outdoor Advertising Unit of the Sekondi -Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA), has embarked on a month-long exercise to remove all unauthorised funeral, political and commercial advertising billboards in the metropolis.

The exercise, which started two weeks ago, is aimed at ensuring sanity in the twin-city and clean the metropolis of numerous billboards, erected at unauthorised places, which blocks the view of drivers and occupy advertising space.

The Head of the Outdoor Advertising Unit of the STMA, Mr. George Amartey, told the Ghana News Agency in Sekondi, on Wednesday, that offenders would pay 100 per cent cost for removing the billboards and other signages.

He entreated prospective advertisers to contact the Unit to pay the necessary fees before erecting any billboards or sign posts in the metropolis to avoid future punitive action.

Mr. Amartey noted that the exercise be on the major principal streets in Sekondi, Kojokrom, Effiakuma and Tanokrom and that it would soon start in Takoradi.

“Nowadays, it has become a fashion for families to erect huge billboards to advertise the funeral arrangements of their loved ones, but after the final funeral rites they don’t remove them, which does not help in creating the needed beauty we expected for an oil-city”, he opined.

He noted that the Assembly does not charge for political billboards, however after every political campaign season, political parties and politicians leave their billboards for many years which occupy advertising space that could be utilized by the Assembly to generate revenue for development projects.

Mr. Amartey asked shop owners at the Takoradi Central Market, who had erected billboards on the walls of the market to remove them since some of them were too heavy and poses a danger to pedestrians and the wall.