President Buhari

The ministries of Health as well as Finance, Budget and National Planning are working together to upwardly review taxes on tobacco in a bid to make the product unaffordable. This comes as the Federal government has warned the tobacco industry against the introduction of electronic smoking devices, which are falsely claimed to be less harmful than conventional cigarettes. It stressed that the World Health Organisation (WHO) disclosed that a shisha user inhales the equivalent of about 100 cigarettes during a single session. The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, disclosed this at the briefing to mark the 2021 World Tobacco Day yesterday in Abuja. He said that tobacco use is a leading cause of preventable risk non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like hypertension, stroke, cancers, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. He said increasing excise tax on tobacco products to make it more unaffordable is an easy way to discourage tobacco use, adding that in 2018 Nigeria introduced a three-year tobacco tax regime, which has increased over time to a cumulative 20 per cent value duty. Meanwhile, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned Nigerians over the use of Shisha, cigarettes and all forms of tobacco as it is prepared to take the war to the market through meaningful collaboration and sensitization.