Institute set to punish practitioners for non-compliance

The National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN) has expressed readiness to curtailed the activities of marketing practitioners who have failed to comply with modus operand of the institute as stated in the ACT formed the Istitute..

The President of the Institute, Tony Agemonmen, in a press conference with the theme: ‘Shaping the future of the marketing institute in Nigeria’ recently in Lagos, disclosed that; “membership of the institute is compulsory once you intend to practice or currently practicing marketing, by whatever designation defined. That is the position of the law. The setting up the institute is very clear, and one more time I would like to draw the attention of all marketing professionals, intending marketing professionals and all companies engaged in marketing activities, to find some time to understand the provision of the act.”

According to him, “As it stand today, there are thousands of marketing professionals who are not registered with the institute. By the position of the law, they are clearly in violation of the NIMN Act and currently practicing illegally. The responsibility of compliance is both that of the individuals and the companies that employed them.”

Further, he pointed out that, “our approach to enforcement is to avoid the use of force, except this is a very last resort. We are convinced that it is in the collective interest of all true marketing professionals and marketing organizations to support the efforts to ensure that only true and qualified marketers, practice marketing.’”

“In line with our preference for non use of force in driving compliance, we have accordingly created a time window and opportunity for all currently practicing marketing illegally to comply with the provision of the law. Therefore, from now to the 31st of December, 2017 such illegal practitioners have the opportunity to comply through our special fact track executive membership program for all categories of membership.” He added.

While commenting on some members who are not financially active, he disclosed that, ”there are thousands of members including fellows who are in arrears of their membership subscription for up to ten years. Technically and practically, their membership of the institute has lapsed, as membership of the institute is not for life. Once conferred, it has to be renewed every year.”

Stories by Godwin Anyebe