A telecoms giant, a bank and a property developer. On paper, nothing. On ARCON’s honours list, quite a lot.

A telecoms giant, a bank and a property developer. On paper, nothing. On ARCON’s honours list, quite a lot. One connects millions of phone calls a day. One looks after people’s money. One builds homes.

It is hard to think of three Nigerian businesses with less to do with each other. Yet on Friday, 23 October, Airtel, Fidelity Bank and Lekki Gardens found themselves on the same list.

At the ARCON Special Recognition Awards (ASRA) 2026, held at the Balmoral Convention Centre, Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria honoured a small group of advertisers for compliance. Lekki Gardens was recognised in the Real Estate and Properties category, alongside honourees that included CocaCola, Peak, Moniepoint and Chicken Republic in their own sectors. So what do they have in common? Not size, and not industry.

What they share is a record. None of them entered. ARCON’s Secretariat went back through every eligible advertisement it had vetted in the period under review and picked out the advertisers with the highest volumes of approved work in each sector.

A technical assessment followed, then a jury, then final ratification, with an independent audit firm checking the process from start to finish. Nobody could buy, pitch or charm their way onto that list.

The only way on was to keep getting it right. There is a second thing the three share, and it is the more important one. Each of them is trusted with something people cannot afford to lose. For Airtel, it is the connection. For Fidelity Bank, it is the savings. For Lekki Gardens, it is usually both, because a home is the largest financial decision most families will ever make.

That is why the company treats its adverts as promises rather than slogans. “Compliance here is not a department. It is in the DNA of the business,” says Mr Oluwole Ntia, Lekki Gardens’ Group Head of Marketing Operations, who received the award. “We do things well, do things right and protect the resources our customers entrust to us.”

Founder Dr Richard Nyong has said the same thing for years, in fewer words: “If the customer does not choose you, you do not get paid.” So, what do Airtel, Fidelity Bank and Lekki Gardens have in common? When the regulator went looking for the advertisers it could hold up as the standard, it found all three.

What do Airtel, Fidelity bank and Lekki Gardens have in common?

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