Comparative Analysis of Advertising Regulation in West Africa: A Study of Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, The Gambia, and Sierra Leone
Hero Sunday Akpata
Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, Akwa Ibom State University, Obio Akpa, Nigeria.
Philomena Effiong Umoren *
Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, Akwa Ibom State University, Obio Akpa, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Advertising regulation in West Africa is characterised by institutional diversity, uneven legislative consolidation, and different combinations of statutory, sectoral, consumer-protection, media-regulatory, and self-regulatory mechanisms. This study compares the regulatory architecture of Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, The Gambia, and Sierra Leone through a qualitative comparative content analysis of ten principal laws, regulations, codes, and official guidelines current as at 21 August 2026. The analysis focuses on institutional locus, the existence of advertising-specific legislation, anti-deception and accuracy standards, pre-exposure controls, sector-specific restrictions, enforcement mechanisms, and implications for cross-border advertising. The findings show that Nigeria has the most advertising-specific statutory architecture among the five countries, centred on the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria Act 2022 and the Nigerian Code of Advertising. Ghana operates a sectoral and hybrid framework in which the Food and Drugs Authority, Gaming Commission, other statutory regulators, and industry self-regulation perform complementary functions; its proposed Advertising Bill remained under stakeholder review in 2026. The Gambia addresses advertising principally through consumer-protection law, while Sierra Leone embeds relevant controls within media regulation. Liberia has no identified comprehensive advertising statute; its applicable framework is more indirect, relying principally on the Competition Law of 2016 and related intellectual-property rules. Across the jurisdictions, anti-deception, accuracy, and fair-commercial-practice norms recur, but pre-approval requirements, sectoral restrictions, institutional concentration, and remedies vary materially. The study concludes that formal regulatory architecture should not be equated with enforcement effectiveness and recommends greater transparency of applicable rules, inter-agency coordination, digital-advertising capacity, and regional minimum standards rather than institutional uniformity.
Keywords: Advertising regulation, West Africa, comparative regulation, consumer protection, digital advertising, ARCON, media regulation, regulatory governance