In a surprise enforcement operation across Kano, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, has threatened a complete crackdown on retail shops selling tobacco goods without graphic health warnings.
The National Tobacco Control Act’s graphic health warning policy, which was adopted in 2015, stipulates that tobacco products must include graphic or pictorial health warnings on at least 50% of their primary display area.
The policy is crucial because it was created to both dissuade potential users from starting and to urge tobacco users to give up harmful behaviors.
Speaking to reporters in Kano, National Tobacco Control Alliance program officer Chibuike Nwokorie, who oversaw the FCCPC’s exercise, claimed that many tobacco companies had not yet complied with the state’s regulations.
Nwokorie claims that this is why the FCCPC seized some of the samples and issued a warning to defaulters in case they continued to market their goods without the graphic warnings.
Nwokorie criticized the lack of compliance with the policy in the state, stating that despite the ban, the tobacco businesses continued to do unlawful business.
Nwokorie stated, “In 2015, the National Tobacco Control Act (NTC Act, 2015) was signed into law, and between December 2021 and February 2022, the FCCPC commenced enforcement in Abuja and Lagos, and now it has arrived in Kano for enforcement.
“While on the field for enforcement in Kano, a lot of cigarettes, and especially Shisha products are being sold without the graphics health warnings, this shows that the Tobacco Industry is deceiving Nigerians by making sure they comply with the law only in Abuja while in other states they are still conducting business as usual.
“Unfortunately, most of the products we saw in the field in kano do not comply with the policy, they are still selling products that are illegal based on Nigerian law.
“Let us obey the law in Nigeria as we do in other countries, the policy is effective in many countries, there is no reason it should not work in Nigeria. The country gazetted the NTC Act in December 2019, to give bite the NTC Act, 2015” Nwokorie added.