The Nigeria case : Fighting illicit trade with regulation.
4% Smoking prevalence grew at an average rate of 4% a year, from 11.3% in 2000 to 17.4% in 2015. Nigeria spent USD 1.64 billion to treat tobaccorelated ailments in 2019. Given the realities of the tobacco industry in Nigeria, there is a need for market regularization in terms of tax imposition and more notably at the production level.
When implementing new a tax, size matters. Increasing tobacco taxes should lead to an increased cigarette price in order to impact consumer behavior. However, the actual price of the most popular cigarette in Nigeria, manufactured by British American Tobacco, has in fact declined in both rural and urban areas since the start of the new tax regime. A new tax policy introduced in 2018 amounted to 16.4% of Nigeria’s overall tax burden. This is still significantly lower than the 75% excise tax burden on tobacco products recommended by the World Health Organization. Discover the full project