By Abdullahi Abdullateef
The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, CAPPA, has alerted the federal government to increase excise tax on tobacco products to 100 percent in a bid to save thousands of Nigerians and cut over N526 billion health expenses attributed to tobacco use annually.
According to the statement, “Tobacco use remains a major risk factor for a wide range of non-communicable diseases, NCDs, that are both debilitating and expensive to treat.”
Warning that the tobacco industry continues to aggressively target Nigerians with both traditional and new smokeless tobacco products, such as vapes and other e-cigarettes, even though tobacco use is a significant risk factor for expensive and debilitating diseases.
The group recounted the statement made by the former Nigeria’s Health Minister, Isaac Adewole stating that over 20 billion sticks of cigarettes are consumed annually in Nigeria. while almost 30,000 people die each year in the country from tobacco-related diseases.
Reporting data from the Nigerian Tobacco Control Data Initiative, the statement pointed out that 90 percent of tobacco production takes place in developing countries like Nigeria, bearing the environmental hazards and the developed countries get the proceeds from tobacco production.
CAPPA said Nigeria spent ₦526.4 billion treating tobacco-related diseases in 2019 referencing an analysis by the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa.
The statement noted that Nigeria adopted a mixed excise tax system for tobacco products. This system comprises a 30 percent ad valorem tax calculated on the unit cost of production or manufacturing price, a specific excise tax of ₦84 per pack of 20 cigarettes, which was introduced on June 1, 2022, and a shisha/tobacco tax of ₦3,000 per liter or ₦1,000 per kilogram, with an annual increment of ₦500. Although the federal government proposed increasing the tax to 50 percent in April 2023, this suggested hike has not been implemented, and the current tax structure remains unchanged.
CAPPA urged the Nigerian government to follow the best practices, stressing that other African countries including Senegal, Kenya, and South Africa have adopted stricter regulations on tobacco and nicotine products. The group highlighted that these countries are taking decisive action to protect young people from addiction, health problems, and financial hardship.
In Senegal, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko increased taxes on tobacco from 70% to 100%. While Kenya banned the import of tobacco and nicotine products, including vapes, to combat a rise in youth addiction linked to cheap, easily accessible imported goods.South Africa proposed new measures to tighten tobacco control and prohibit public smoking and vaping, citing evidence that vapes contain addictive nicotine and that the vapor is damaging to the lungs
CAPPA’s Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, stated that Nigeria’s tobacco industry is aggressively marketing new products like vapes and e-cigarettes to young people. Reacting that the industry is misleading the public with a “tobacco harm reduction strategy” that falsely portrays these addictive and harmful products as safe.
Oluwafemi added: “What the tobacco industry is doing is grooming the next set of addicts to replace the thousands of Nigerians who die from tobacco-related diseases and the many others whose lives are destroyed. They must be stopped.
“We urge the government to act fast and raise the taxes on tobacco and related products to 100 per cent. This is a proven way to not only discourage tobacco and e-cigarette use, but also save billions in healthcare costs.”
