KINGSTON, Jamaica — Leaders of Jamaica’s outdoor advertising and print industries are calling for critical updates to outdated municipal signage regulations, arguing that the 48-year-old rules have failed to keep pace with the island’s rapid urban development and modern advertising innovation. Following a collaborative stakeholder gathering with the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) focused on regulating outdoor signage across the capital, IPrint Group of Companies Chairman Steven Steele laid out the case for amending the KSAMC’s 1978 signage regulatory framework. “We are now in 2026, so many decades have passed since these rules were drafted, and nearly every facet of life here has grown: our road networks, our total population, our urban centers, our overall national economy,” Steele explained. “That means these regulations are long overdue for a comprehensive upgrade.”
In attendance alongside Steele was Raul Duany, Managing Director of leading local signage firm Signtex and current President of the Outdoor Signage Association of Jamaica, who opened by affirming the core value of outdoor signage for Jamaican businesses and private individuals seeking to connect with their target audiences. But Duany also acknowledged longstanding gaps in current regulatory enforcement, noting that “Some operators blatantly erect unapproved signage across the city, while other areas that once permitted promotional signs have become strangely barren over time.”
Duany echoed widespread industry agreement that what was originally intended to be low-impact, unobtrusive advertising has now created problematic visual and physical clutter along many of Kingston’s public roadways. Even so, he welcomed the recent stakeholder meeting as a rare productive space for collaborative problem-solving, framing the dialogue as a potential catalyst for long-overdue legislative reform.
Steele echoed that positive assessment, praising the quarterly meeting format as a strong foundation for future collaboration between industry and municipal leaders. He also expressed public support for KSAMC’s ongoing enforcement efforts, which aim to protect legitimate, rule-abiding players in the signage industry. “Maintaining a fair, well-regulated industry is critically important, and that is clearly the mayor’s top priority,” Steele said. “My only core concern is the risk of uneven enforcement, but at this point, that does not appear to be the direction the initiative is taking.”
For his part, Kingston Mayor Andrew Swaby confirmed that the recent gathering marks the first in a planned series of quarterly stakeholder meetings. Swaby added that the industry representatives in attendance showed clear, genuine commitment to addressing the longstanding challenges facing Jamaica’s outdoor signage sector.