The Africa Centre for Tobacco Industry Monitoring and Policy Research (ATIM), has urged the National Assembly to urgently reconsider the proposed amendments to Nigeria’s National Tobacco Control Act 2015, warning that new “Tobacco Harm Reduction” provisions could erode the country’s tobacco control gains.
In a statement issued on Sunday by Robert Egbe, the Media and Communications Officer, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, ATIM backed the Nigerian tobacco control community’s rejection of the proposed changes.
The organisation said the amendments could create loopholes for the tobacco industry to addict Nigerians, especially young people, with nicotine and other “so-called non-combustible products.”
The development comes amid Nigeria’s progress in reducing smoking prevalence and its obligations under the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, WHO FCTC.
“Nigeria should be strengthening the measures that have helped reduce smoking, not creating new policy openings that could undermine those gains,” ATIM said.
According to the organisation, the amendment process was initially presented as an effort to strengthen implementation of the 2015 Act and close loopholes on emerging tobacco and nicotine products.
However, ATIM noted that the harmonised Bill considered by the House of Representatives introduced “Tobacco Harm Reduction” as one of the objectives of the legislation and created separate provisions for non-combustible products, including electronic nicotine products and nicotine pouches.
It described the shift as significant and called for greater transparency and public scrutiny.
Tobacco control activists say “Tobacco Harm Reduction” is a tactic through which the industry lobbies to market vapes, e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, HTPs, smokeless nicotine pouches and other electronic nicotine delivery systems, ENDS, by claiming the addictive products help users quit.
ATIM noted that adult smoking prevalence in Nigeria is now estimated at 5–6 per cent, representing substantial progress compared with previous decades.
Rather than risk reversing this progress, the organisation urged government to prioritise proven measures like comprehensive smoke-free environments, stronger taxation and health warnings, prohibition of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, improved cessation support, action against illicit trade, and stronger implementation of Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC.
The centre also warned that emerging nicotine products could provide a new pathway to addiction among youth.
“Nothing prevents Nigeria from adopting evidence-based cessation or risk-reduction interventions where they are independently demonstrated to benefit population health,” ATIM said. “But there is no need to embed a changing and contested commercial concept such as ‘Tobacco Harm Reduction’ as a statutory objective.”
ATIM further called on the National Assembly to provide clarity on how the provisions on “Tobacco Harm Reduction” and non-combustible products were introduced into the harmonised Bill.
It stressed that while it had not established that the tobacco industry drafted the provisions, their source should be publicly explained given the commercial importance of new nicotine products to multinational tobacco companies.
The organisation demanded disclosure of stakeholders who proposed the provisions, submissions received during the legislative process, meetings held with tobacco and nicotine industry representatives, and the evidence relied upon in developing the differentiated regulatory framework.
It said such transparency is required under Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC, which mandates governments to protect tobacco control policies from tobacco industry interference.
ATIM also urged tobacco control organisations, researchers, professional associations and public health advocates across Africa to monitor developments in Nigeria, warning that the country’s legislation could set a precedent for the continent.
“Nigeria has made important progress in reducing smoking. The task now is to accelerate that progress towards a genuinely smoke-free generation, not create new opportunities for nicotine addiction or reopen policy space for an industry whose commercial future increasingly depends on new nicotine products,” ATIM said.
The organisation called on the National Assembly to ensure that any amendment to the Tobacco Control Act strengthens, rather than weakens, Nigeria’s public health protections and remains aligned with the WHO FCTC.
Business Day Report that CAPPA, the Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance, NTCA, Gatefield Impact, Nigerian Cancer Society, Association of Resident Doctors, Abuja and other members of the Nigerian Tobacco Control Community demanded the immediate withdrawal of the Bill.
They also urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to withhold assent should the text be presented for executive approval.
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