March 05, (THEWILL) – Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has called for a significant policy change in order to address Nigeria’s growing obesity and non-communicable disease (NCD) crisis.
In a renewed push for healthier food systems, CAPPA has proposed increasing the tax on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) from N10 per litre to N130 per litre, or at a rate not less than 20% of the product’s retail price. Akinbode Oluwafemi, CAPPA’s Executive Director, made this call in observance of World Obesity Day.
According to him, this aims to reduce the consumption of sugary drinks, an established risk factor for obesity. The organisation advocates for the revenue generated by this increased tax to be reinvested into the healthcare sector, helping to address the rising healthcare costs associated with obesity-related diseases.
The proposal highlights the urgent need for policy shifts to protect public health while creating economic incentives for healthier food choices.
The civil society organisation (CSO) highlighted the alarming data on the global obesity scourge, saying it reinforced CAPPA’s advocacy for urgent measures to discourage Nigerians from excessively consuming sugary drinks, which are a risk factor for overweight and obesity.
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.
World Obesity Day encourages practical solutions to help people achieve and maintain a healthy weight, undertake proper treatment and reverse the obesity crisis.
In the same occasion, CAPPA aligned with the WOD theme of “Changing Systems, Healthier Lives”, which puts the onus on systems that influence the drivers of obesity and related chronic diseases to act.
The NGO noted that these include the food systems, healthcare services, governments, media and workplaces and communities.
“These systems are directly or indirectly linked to the increasing rates of obesity,” Oluwafemi said.
The NGO argued that the case for speedy action is reinforced by the grim reality of local and global forecasts on diabetes.
According to the World Obesity Federation (WOF), 1.9 billion or 1 in 4 people will be living with obesity in 2035, costing the global economy about $4.32 trillion, which 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.
He noted that as of 2020, there were more than 21 million overweight and 12 million obese persons in the Nigerian population aged 15 years or more, accounting for an age-adjusted prevalence of about 20 percent and 12 percent, respectively, according to the National Library of Medicine.
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.
Oluwafemi 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, he 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.
Janefrances Ebere Chibuzor is a Tourism Writer at THEWILL
