Over 11 Million Nigerians Living with Diabetes, Says CAPPA

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has decried the increasing rate of people affected with diabetes in Nigeria, saying that victims living with the disease across the country are over 11 million.

The Executive Director of CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi, who mentioned this at a two-day Journalism training on Effective Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSB) Tax and Industry Monitoring, held in Port Harcourt, said Nigeria’s status as the fourth largest consumer of soft drinks globally is a looming health epidemic if not addressed promptly.

Oluwafemi said the habitual consumption of sugar sweetened beverages, has not only affected the individual consumers, but a serious threat to the health and wellbeing of the nation at large.

He said: “In Nigeria, studies have shown that close to 30 per cent of annual deaths are due to Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD), which are primarily linked to unhealthy diets, particularly the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, also known as soft drink”.

He said the adverse effects of the preventable diseases on productivity, revenue loss, and human lives underscores the urgency for effective policy solution on the SSBs.

“The government initiated an Excise Duty of N10 per litre on all carbonated SSBs through the 2021 Finance Act and began its implementation in June 2022”.

 “The objective of this measure is to reduce the excessive consumption of sugary drinks. However, though the initiated is a step in the right direction, it falls short of the global recommendation of at least a 20 percent increase in the final retail price of SSBs, ” he added.

He said effective implementation of an excise on SSBs is a vital public health measure aimed at curbing the rising tide of NCDs, urging that regulatory agencies should therefore promote policies that prioritise public health over corporate profit.

In her remarks, the Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr Adaeze Oreh, noted that “a staggering rate of 41 million people are lost to NCDs deaths annually, and NCD deaths in Nigeria accounts for 30 per cent of annual deaths.”

Represented by Dr Ifeoma Nwadiutor, State Epidemiologist, Oreh said with the present data, it is therefore paramount to address the root causes of these preventable illnesses, especially dealing with the excessive consumption of sugar sweetened beverages by Nigerians.

 Oreh who emphasised that the State Ministry of Health is committed to ensuring that the health of Rivers people is prioritised and sustained, noted the need “to equip journalists with necessary information on the risks of consuming these products and the mechanism to maximize their platform for a behavioural change towards healthy diets”.

She added that NCDs including diabetes and cardiovascular diseases have become a public health concern globally and across the nation.