Cancer society advocates 20% tax on sugary drinks, sweetened beverages

The Nigeria Cancer Society (NCS) has called on the Federal Government to increase the tax on sugary drinks and sweetened beverages to 20 per cent to deter people from consuming products harmful to the human body.

NCS President and the National Committee Chairman on Oncology and Cancer Care of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr Adamu Umar, who spoke to The Guardian decried the proliferation of sugary drinks in the country and urged the government to monitor the manufacturing industry and put in place an effective tax system to check the trend.

He said, “We have all sorts of sugary drinks coming out every day, many of them are not regulated, but when you have an effective tax system, these sugary drinks will be regulated in the markets, and many of them will not be on the shelves. There are a lot of them that have carcinogens in them because of additional predisposition not only to diabetes but even cancer.”

Umar observed that the National Action for Sugar Reduction is to ensure that the sugar drinks and sweetened beverages tax is enforced, entrenched, and increased, adding that stakeholders are pushing for policy and attitude changes by Nigerians.

“When we say non-communicable (NCD) diseases, we talk about, you know, people slumping and dying while at work. We talk of sudden deaths, but these deaths are not sudden. The reason is simple; we don’t monitor what we eat, exercise regularly, and go for medical check-ups.

“In every society, the people that live longer are those people that are looking after themselves. They eat a lot of fruits, and fibre, don’t consume anything, but less sugar, and salt, and exercise regularly.”

Umar lamented that one in every three deaths recorded in Nigeria is as a result of one of these NCDs which is alarming and called for proper implementation of the sugary drinks and sweetened beverages tax to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases that are becoming more prevalent in the country.

Also speaking, former Executive Vice-Chairman, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Babatunde Irukera, called for a strategic approach to prioritising NCDs and stressed the need to strengthen the accountability framework of all the stakeholders including those who sell products that are associated with sugar, alcohol, tobacco and to hold them accountable from advocacy, disclosure, consumer protection and tax.