Transforming Nigeria Through Advertising Education: A Searchlight on the Role of The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the role of advertising education in Nigeria and the extent to which the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) participates in the design, accreditation and quality assurance of advertising programmes in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Adopting a narrative literature review approach, the study searched Google Scholar as its primary academic database, supplemented by a general web search used only to locate institutional and grey literature such as ARCON policy documents and professional-body reports. The search covered publications from 1998 to 2025, using combinations of the terms “advertising education,” “ARCON,” “advertising regulation Nigeria,” “accreditation of advertising programmes,” and “curriculum development in Nigerian tertiary institutions.” An initial pool of 102 records was screened by title and abstract for relevance to the study objectives; after removing duplicates and sources outside the study's scope, 20 sources were retained for full review and were synthesised thematically around four analytical strands: professional regulation, human-capital formation, curriculum governance and market development. The review finds that ARCON performs several functions relevant to advertising education, including practitioner certification, capacity-building through seminars and workshops, and accreditation of tertiary institutions offering advertising-related courses, although the literature consistently reports that accreditation of advertising-specific curricula remains inconsistently applied. The review further finds that certification distinguishes registered advertising professionals from unregistered practitioners, and that ARCON's seminars and workshops provide graduates of advertising-related programmes with practical and entrepreneurial skills. The study concludes that while ARCON has contributed meaningfully to advertising education in Nigeria, its accreditation function requires closer institutional coordination with the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE). It recommends that ARCON formalise a collaborative accreditation arrangement with the NUC for advertising programmes in Nigerian universities.