A Social Marketing Approach to Safer Driving in Nigeria

Due to increased urbanisation and motorisation, the road transport sector has become instrumental in the development of the world economy. However, this has left the society and the environment with negative impacts, otherwise refer to as negative externalities. One of the most obvious evidence of these external costs is the road traffic accidents (RTAs). RTAs have physical, social, emotional and economic implications. To address these implications, the international community has responded with series of programmes and policies. However, RTAs have continue to claim the lives and property of people of especially developing countries who, unlike their developed counterparts, have not been successful in implementing programmes and policies that drastically reduce the prevalence of RTAs. In this study, we highlighted the importance of social marketing in addressing the lingering problems of RTAs in Nigeria. We provided some practical examples on how marketing concepts could be applied in addressing the social aspect of these issues and maintain safer driving. We believe that social marketing will be (and remains) the only option to overcoming RTAs and their attendant health, economic, environmental and social challenges in, especially, developing countries where RTAs are a major problem.