Broken advertising structures are littering Accra’s roads. Who is responsible for ensuring they don’t become a tragedy?
Take a drive through Accra, particularly around Tetteh Quarshie and some of the city’s major highways, and you cannot miss them. Giant advertising structures with torn banners, exposed metal frames and, in some cases, what appears to be the remains of collapsed billboards.
They have become part of the scenery. We drive past them every day, barely giving them a second thought.
But perhaps we should.
Imagine driving along one of these roads during a heavy downpour, with strong winds and poor visibility, only for a large metal advertising frame to come crashing down onto a moving vehicle.
It is not something any motorist should have to worry about. Yet looking at the condition of some of these structures, the question is worth asking: how safe are they?
Photographs taken by The High Street Journal show advertising frames in various states of deterioration. Some have lost most of their advertising material, leaving large metal structures exposed. Others appear to have fallen apart entirely.
We cannot tell from photographs alone whether the standing structures are at risk of collapse. That requires an inspection. But surely their condition is enough to warrant one.
Who is looking after these structures?
Someone put these billboards up. Someone paid for the advertising space. Someone collected the fees. And someone must be responsible for ensuring they remain safe or are removed when no longer needed.
So who is that someone?
Outdoor advertising is a business, and there is nothing wrong with that. But when a company installs a massive structure beside a public road, its responsibility cannot end when the advertising contract expires.
The relevant metropolitan and municipal assemblies, road authorities and advertising companies all have roles to play. The public deserves to know who is inspecting these installations and what happens when they are abandoned or damaged.
It is difficult to understand why some of these structures remain in such poor condition along major roads, in full view of everyone, including the authorities responsible for oversight.
And beyond the potential danger, they are simply an eyesore. For a city trying to improve its appearance and attract investment, these neglected structures hardly help.
It should not take an accident
We have a habit of waiting until something goes terribly wrong before taking action. Then come the investigations, the statements, the promises and the inevitable questions about who should have acted sooner.
This is one situation where we have an opportunity to act before that happens.
The High Street Journal is calling on the relevant assemblies and road authorities to inspect deteriorating advertising structures across Accra, identify their owners and ensure those found unsafe are repaired or removed.
The advertising industry should also take the initiative. It should not require a government directive for a company to remove a structure it no longer maintains.
This is not about blaming every advertising company or suggesting that every damaged billboard is about to collapse. It is about basic responsibility for structures placed beside roads used by thousands of people every day.
A billboard may have stopped generating advertising revenue, but it has not stopped being someone’s responsibility.
And we should not have to wait for one to fall on a moving vehicle before someone acts.
