Friday, November 14, 2025 - Nigeria’s fight against tobacco-related harm has suffered a setback, as the newly launched 2025 Nigeria Tobacco Industry Interference (TII) Index revealed that tobacco companies are increasingly undermining public health and exploiting regulatory gaps.
The report, launched on Thursday by Corporate Accountability
and Public Participation Africa, CAPPA, showed that Nigeria’s interference
score worsened from 60 in 2023 to 62, signaling rising industry influence in
policy spaces meant to protect citizens. Out of 100 countries assessed
globally, Nigeria now ranks 54th.
Briefing journalists in Lagos, CAPPA Executive Director
Akinbode Oluwafemi said the report, the fourth in a series, documented how
tobacco companies continue to present themselves as partners in national
development while operating businesses of addiction, disease, and death.
“The tobacco industry is allowed persistent access in
Nigeria’s policy spaces, despite the deadly nature of its products, which claim
approximately 29,000 Nigerian lives annually and cost the economy an estimated
₦634 billion in healthcare expenses and lost productivity,” he said.
“The 2025 Index exposes the industry’s strategic use of
corporate social responsibility initiatives—such as donations of boreholes,
scholarships, fish farms, and reforestation projects—to improve its public
image and gain access to government officials.
“These are not acts of generosity. They are calculated
attempts to buy legitimacy and access, in direct violation of national laws.
Even worse, government officials continue to attend and praise these events,
helping the industry greenwash its deadly business,” Oluwafemi said.
Oluwafemi described the industry’s participation in policy
discussions as “deeply troubling,” particularly regarding emerging nicotine
products such as e-cigarettes, snus, and other novel products marketed as harm
reduction tools.
“The tobacco industry is not a stakeholder in public health.
Its interest is in selling more cigarettes, more nicotine, and more death and
disease,” he stressed.
Acknowledging progress in some areas, Oluwafemi pointed to
the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission’s (FCCPC) US$110
million fine against British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) in 2023 and the
National Film and Video Censors Board’s ban on the glamorisation of smoking in
Nollywood as major wins. However, he lamented inconsistent policies, including
the suspension of tobacco excise taxes in 2023, which weakened Nigeria’s
alignment with WHO and ECOWAS tax standards. “Nigeria cannot afford to take one
step forward and two steps back. Strong laws mean little without consistent
enforcement,” he said.
Presenting the report, CAPPA’s Assistant Executive Director
Zikora Ibeh noted that the 2025 Index assessed seven key areas: policymaking
participation, CSR, benefits to the industry, unnecessary interaction,
transparency, conflict of interest, and preventive measures. “The worsening
score reflects how for every rule that should keep the industry out of
policymaking, another action quietly lets it in,” Ibeh said.
The report highlighted how tobacco industry interference
persists through high-profile appearances by government officials at industry
events, opaque reporting of interactions, and the absence of preventive and
capacity-building measures for civil servants. Awareness of Article 5.3 of the
World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC),
which seeks to prevent industry interference, remains low among government
personnel.
To counter these threats, the report recommended that the
Nigerian government enforce rules prohibiting the tobacco industry from funding
or supporting public institutions or events, strengthen conflict-of-interest
safeguards, and publicly document all interactions with the industry.
It also urged the prompt enforcement of pictorial health
warnings covering 60 percent of tobacco packaging, restoration of tobacco taxes
to inflation-adjusted WHO and ECOWAS standards, and vigilance against the
promotion of new nicotine products marketed as “harm reduction” tools.
Capacity building on tobacco industry interference should be
institutionalized, and the industry should be excluded from policymaking and
regulatory processes entirely.
Oluwafemi stressed that tobacco control is not just a public
health issue but also a governance and development concern.
“What is at stake is not only the health of individual
smokers but also the health of our democracy, particularly the ability of
public institutions to act independently of harmful corporate influence,” he
said.
The findings, which cover April 2023 to March 2025, form
part of a global civil society-led initiative grounded in Article 5.3 of the
WHO-FCTC.
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