Sir: Nigeria’s decision to earmark SIN taxes – levies on alcohol, tobacco, and sugary drinks – for health financing, signals a firm commitment to prioritising citizens’ health.
It also aligns with long-standing calls from Nigerian public health advocates and the World Health Organisation (WHO). The move could not be timelier.
Earlier this year, a major investigation revealed that Nigerians spend about N1.92 trillion (roughly $1.26 billion) yearly seeking treatment for non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Almost 30 per cent of deaths in the country are linked to NCDs, with tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks among the biggest culprits. Tobacco use alone fuels a raft of debilitating diseases: cancers of the lung, mouth, bladder, and colon; heart disease and stroke; chronic respiratory illness like COPD; type 2 diabetes; ectopic pregnancy; and premature, low birth-weight babies.
Globally, tobacco kills more than seven million people yearly – 300,000 in Africa alone. Eight in ten smokers live in low- and middle-income countries like Nigeria, feeding big tobacco’s multi-billion-dollar profits.
In 2015, the six largest cigarette firms raked in $62 billion in profits – more than the annual budgets of several small nations. These resources bankroll relentless marketing campaigns, youth-targeted advertising, lobbying against regulations, and deceptive promotion of so-called “reduced risk” products such as vapes, heated tobacco, snus, and nicotine pouches.
Far from solving the problem, these new products hook a new generation on nicotine while undermining tobacco control efforts. Yet Nigeria’s funding for tobacco control remains pitifully low.
In 2024, following persistent advocacy, the government allocated N13 million to the Tobacco Control Fund (TCF) – but this falls far short of the about N300 million minimum required to operationalise it.
If Nigeria is serious about reducing tobacco’s deadly toll, it must explore innovative financing tools – including holding the industry itself to account.
In 2024, the Canadian government reached a landmark C$32.5 billion settlement with three tobacco giants – JTI-Macdonald Corp., Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, and Imperial Tobacco Canada. The payout compensates provinces, territories, and former smokers for decades of healthcare, social, and economic costs caused by tobacco.
The deal, finalised in August 2025, capped a 27-year legal battle that proved the industry can be held liable for its deception and harm. The Canadian settlement echoes the United States’ historic 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, where four leading tobacco firms agreed to pay $206 billion over 25 years (with payments continuing indefinitely).
For Nigeria, these precedents offer a roadmap. As WHO’s tobacco control chief, Adriana Blanco Marquizo put it, the Canadian deal has “far-reaching” global implications.
Robert Egbe wrote from Lagos.
