On presenting the report to journalists in Abuja, executive director of CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani, highlights that while Nigerians keep dying of smoke-related diseases, the tobacco industry has been feeding money laundering and corruption in the country. Referring to 2020 data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Rafsanjani revealed ,that Africa is now losing over $88.6 billion to IFFs.
“We have to show the world the negative effects and manner in which tobacco companies are destroying the health of Africans, and at same time, promote corruption in the continent,” he said.
Africa urged to diversify from tobacco farming
Meanwhile, sociologist and tobacco harm reduction expert, Gerry Stimson has been advising African countries to avoid disaster by moving away from tobacco farming towards a more sustainable crop, because tobacco harm reduction is here to stay.
Stimson was one of the presenters at the recent Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR) report, Fighting The Last War: The WHO and International Tobacco Control, launched on the 27th of October. The event aimed to draw attention to, and challenge the WHO’s infamous FCTC Conference of Parties (COP).
In response to a journalist’s comment about the fact that some African countries rely on tobacco production, Stimson warned that any tobacco-dependent countries which will delay moving away from the ‘green gold’ are likely to face disasters in their economies in a not so distant future.
“I know there are some countries in African such as Malawi that heavily rely on tobacco production. But by now, Malawi should be thinking about agricultural transformation. The question these countries that depend on tobacco should be considering is: What does the future of tobacco production look like for them?” he emphasized.
Malawi urged to consider switching to cannabis
Echoing the expert’s arguments, Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera recently urged the local tobacco industry to switch to high-growth crops like cannabis. The President’s comments were made during a state of the nation address in which he said that tobacco was expected to generate less than $200 million in 2021. The figure is roughly similar to the past two years but well below the annual earnings of previous years which used to top $350 million.
“The inconvenient truth … is that while Malawi has come a long way by relying on tobacco as our … largest single crop contributor to our GDP, this reliance is now seriously threatened by declining demand worldwide,” said Chakwera. “Clearly we need to diversify and grow other crops like cannabis, which was legalized last year for industrial and medicinal use,” he added.
Meanwhile, discussing the production of the Sh1.5 billion oral nicotine pouches factory in Kenya, BAT has recently said that the local “less stringent” regulatory and taxation framework has been a key factor in a enabling the production of the new category products. BAT Kenya’s Managing director Crispin Achola said that a further investment of Sh1 billion in the plant, greatly depends on “an enabling environment” which would further facilitate foreign investment into the country.
New GSTHR Briefing Paper: Tobacco Harm Reduction Must be Embraced in Sub-Saharan Africa
