The Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) has urged the Federal Government to immediately raise the tobacco taxes from the current 20 percent to 70 percent and set aside at least five percent of the taxes on earmarking for tobacco control activities in the country.
This is contained in the communique of a high level stakeholders meeting, held in Abuja, with officials from government agencies and other stakeholders on Tobacco control.
They stressed the importance of the establishment of a Tobacco Control Fund for successful implementation of tobacco control policies in the country.
The meeting was attended by senior officials from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Nigeria Customs Service, Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trades and Investment, Budget Office of the Federation, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Centre for the Study of Economics of Africa; and the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), among others.
Speaking during the sessions, ERA/FoEN Deputy Executive Director, Dr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, said the alliance is using the opportunity to set the agenda for the newly inaugurated ministers of health and their colleagues in other ministries to implement the National Tobacco Control Act (NTCA) 2015.
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