The president of the Advertisers Association of Ghana, Francis Dadzie, has said it would be difficult to control unapproved and sub-standard billboards springing up in the capital and other parts of the country because they are owned by “staff and cronies” in the various assemblies.

“The billboards that are coming up, it might interest you to know that some of them even belong to staff and cronies of the assemblies,” Dadzie told Kafui Dey, host of MORNING STARR Friday.

“I am not mentioning AMA; I am just saying that some of the billboards are protected by people in the assembly. It is not every billboard that has a permit but as it is, if you are able to pay some money in the system, they turn a blind eye,” Dadzie added.

The National Road Safety Commission has served notice that, it will from October this year, demolish all electronic billboards that do not meet advertising standards in Ghana.

Some drivers who ply the Danquah Circle and the Airport roads where some giant electronic billboards have been mounted told Starr FM that the billboards are very distractive.

However, Dadzie stated that corruption at the highest level is to blame for those distractive billboards in the capital and other parts of the country.

“[Corruption] at the highest level; it is so pathetic, when you go to the assemblies especially; schedule officers who are handling this scheduling, it is so serious that some of the monies don’t even go to the assemblies.

“Look at what is happening at the Spintex Road, it’s like a war zone and there are issues of people who are taking this money and not accounting for it. It is pathetic.”