•Health minister, Prof. Mohammad Ali Pate
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Mohammad Ali Pate, yesterday stated that current statistics reveal that over 3.6 million Nigerians are diabetic and 53% of these citizens undiagnosed.
The minister, who disclosed this in Abuja at the 2024 National Sugar Conference on Sugar Sweetened Beverages Tax and Health Financing in Nigeria, organised by Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, emphasised the urgent need for health reforms to combat rising obesity and related diseases.
Represented by Pharm. Mrs. Olubunmi Aribeana, the Director, Food and Drug Services Department, the minister stated that Nigerians face a growing health crisis with SSB-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes, reports Daily Independent.
Prof. Pate warned that the associated healthcare costs are escalating at an alarming rate with skyrocketing costs of treatment.
“The health burden of SSB consumption is particularly significant in low and middle-income countries, where rates of obesity and related health problems are on the rise. In Nigeria, we face a growing health crisis with SSB-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
“The associated healthcare costs are escalating at an alarming rate. Recent reviews and meta-analyses by the International Diabetes Foundation (IDF) show that as of 2021, over 3.6 million people are diabetic with 53% of these citizens undiagnosed; and this number is expected to rise to about 5 million by the year 2030.
“The cost of treating diabetes per person has surged from an average of N60,000 in 2011 to N800,000 in 2021, and it is projected to exceed N1,000,000 by 2030,” he said.
Earlier, Akinbode Oluwafemi, the Executive Director of CAPPA, highlighted a public health crisis as non-communicable diseases (NCDs) surge, warning that the menace now accounts for 29% of deaths in Nigeria.
Oluwafemi of CAPPA emphasised the link between unhealthy lifestyles, particularly excessive sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption, and these health issues.
He called for increasing the current SSB tax from N10 to N130 per litre to align with WHO recommendations, stressing that industry resistance undermines public health efforts.
“Today, NCDs account for 29 percent of all deaths in Nigeria, with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) alone responsible for 11 percent of these fatalities. Health experts report that in the past 20 years, cases of cardiovascular disease have exploded by 150 percent in Nigeria.
“Nigeria’s consumption of over 40 million litres of SSBs contributes to an estimated $2.37 billion annually in societal costs for managing obesity and overweight issues, with informal care costs exceeding N58 million. As a nation, we must find sustainable ways to control these avoidable diseases, alleviate the mounting expenses they impose, and bolster our healthcare infrastructure and social systems to withstand the burden of these diseases.
“At N10 per litre, Nigeria’s current tax on SSBs falls short of the World Health Organisation’s recommendation and global best practice of a minimum of 20 percent of total retail prices. In fact, the impact of our current tax rate has been largely eroded by escalating inflationary pressures, rendering it nearly ineffective, hence the need for a re-evaluation.
“Findings from this research not only underscored the urgent need to address the public health impact of excessive SSB consumption but also identified an effective tax rate of N130 per litre as the most sustainable peg for realising public health goals”, he said.
