World Obesity Day: CAPPA warns on rising obesity in Nigeria

As the world commemorates World Obesity Day (WOD), Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) is worried that over 33 million Nigerians are not only overweight but also obese as of 2020.

A breakdown indicates that more than 21 million were overweight, while 12 million obese persons in the population were aged 15 years or more.

CAPPA, in a statement by its Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, renewed the call for comprehensive healthy food policies to strengthen local diets and tackle the country’s rising obesity and other non-communicable disease (NCD) burdens.

CAPPA urged the government at all levels to pay attention to the worrisome practice of food corporations flooding the markets and grooming Nigerians with unhealthy, ultra-processed food products targeted at children and other classes of the country’s teeming youth population to the detriment of their health and nutritious, indigenous diets.

CAPPA noted that these junk foods have been linked to overweight and obesity, adding that this unhealthy diet crisis is costing the country invaluable manpower and productivity loss due to hospitalisation and chronic disability of NCD victims.

Referencing the WHO, CAPPA added that obese children are at higher risk of developing serious health problems, including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma and other respiratory problems, sleep disorders, and liver disease.

“Childhood obesity also increases the risk of obesity, non-communicable diseases, premature death, and disability in adulthood,” he added.

“Taking action on obesity is a critical step in reducing the burden of other chronic non-communicable diseases, hence the call for a raise in the SSB tax – a pro-health levy – to N130 per litre, with the proceeds ploughed into the healthcare sector.”

These measures, CAPPA said, include raising the tax imposed on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSB) from the current N10 to N130 per litre or by any rate that is not less than 20 percent of the product’s retail price.

According to the World Obesity Federation (WOF), 1.9 billion, or one in four people, will be living with obesity in 2035, costing the global economy about $4.32 trillion. This is twice the figure for 2010. Worse yet, there will be a 100 percent increase in childhood obesity between 2020 and 2035, while 1 in 4 people are likely to be living with obesity by 2035.

“Ten years after the international health community set aside March 4 as World Obesity Day, it is disheartening to see a condition once thought to be more prevalent in wealthy nations steadily creeping among populations in low- and middle-income countries, including Nigeria,” Akinbode said.