Africa News

Tax Justice SA calls on Sars to act urgently as illicit cigarettes flood market

Pretoria – Tax Justice SA (TJSA) is calling on all tobacco firms in South Africa to sign up to its new charter aimed at defeating the rampant illicit cigarette trade, which is robbing the country of billions of rand. Following the release of its “explosive” undercover investigation detailing widespread tax evasion in the industry, TJSA...

Smokers spend N146,000 yearly on cigarettes, statistics show

More people are smoking now than ever. In metropolitan cities like Lagos, finding a non-smoker can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack. According to statistics published in the medical magazine The Lancet, the number of active smokers in 2019 has increased to 1.14 billion (1,140,000,000) people globally. Smoking is still as deadly as ever....

FDA deepens stakeholder collaboration on enforcing tobacco control

Mr. Gordon Akurugu, Volta Regional Head of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), has called for effective inter-agency collaboration and harmonisation to guarantee success in enforcing tobacco regulations in the country. He said with the marketing and consumption of tobacco products progressing into diverse forms and trends, concerted efforts by stakeholders had become necessary in...

Ban sale of single stick cigarette, make tobacco products expensive — VALD to government

The Vision for Alternative Development (VALD) has reiterated its call to government of Ghana to ban the sale of single-stick cigarette in the country. It wants government to also make tobacco products very expensive to curb its usage. According to Mr. Labram Musah who is Executive Director at VALD, the sale of cigarette in single stick...

Industry interference major challenge to effective tobacco control-CAPPA

The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), on Thursday, declared that tobacco industry interference remains a major challenge to effective tobacco control in Nigeria and Africa. CAPPA alerted that the tobacco industry’s meddlesomeness with governments’ health policies was endangering regulatory efforts in clear contravention of the National Tobacco Control Act, 2015, and the National...

New report exposes Zimbabwe as biggest pawn of Big Tobacco

On the first day of virtual tobacco treaty talks, Zimbabwe joined a small cadre of countries in delaying meaningful negotiations. Its actions come weeks after a new report found Zimbabwe to be the worst country on the continent in safeguarding public policy from tobacco industry interference. The Zimbabwe delegation raised a range of questions and procedural...

Kenya, Uganda rank top globally in enacting tobacco control measures

Summary The index by STOP — the global tobacco industry watchdog — shows that regionally, Uganda took fifth position while Kenya came nineth. A total of 31 countries registered a deterioration in the index partly due to the fact that many governments were short of public health resources during the pandemic, which forced them...

Harmful use of tobacco thrives on weak laws in Tanzania

Tobacco control campaigners said yesterday that the lack of strong laws against smoking in Tanzania continues to allow harmful consumption of the products, reversing the efforts invested in controlling non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Launching the 2021 Tobacco Industry Interference Index Report in Dar es Salaam, medical doctors, anti-tobacco activists and researchers warned unsuspecting youth and government...

South Africa: Calls for stronger tobacco control as new study links smoking to Covid-19 deaths

Study supports Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma's temporary ban on tobacco sales as it established a link between smoking and Covid-19 complications. National Council Against Smoking (NCAS) says now is the time to tighten tobacco control in the country. New evidence shows a strong link between smoking and increased risks of severe Covid-19. According to UK Biobank research published in a leading...

Tobacco firm donation to Covid-19 kitty costs Kenya

It sank Kenya’s ranking in the Interference Index; the law is against such sponsorships In Summary •At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, a tobacco firm contributed Sh10.6 million to the kitty that had been established by President Uhuru Kenyatta. •As a result, the Kenya Tobacco Industry Interference Index released on Friday by the Consumer Information Network...

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