Diabetes: Coalition Calls For Increased Taxes On Sugar Sweetened Beverages

The National Action Plan on Sugar Reduction Coalition  (NASR) has called on the government to increase taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, staff state health ministries with diabetes desk officers and remove tariffs on diabetes treatment goods. 

The coalition made the call during an exhibition in commemoration of the World Diabetes Day, themed: “Know Your Risk, Know Your Response,” in Abuja.It also advocated for free diabetes screening in public facilities, adding that tax revenue be channeled towards subsidizing diabetes care in the country.

World Diabetes Day is commemorated on November 14 to raise awareness of diabetes as a global public health issue. 

President of the Diabetes Association of Nigeria, Dr Mohammed Alkali, who spoke at the event, said this year’s World Diabetes Day underscores the crucial need for action towards preventing the disease and ensuring quality healthcare access.

The event included a panel session moderated by the director of the Centre for Diabetes Studies at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Prof. Felicia Anumah, who stressed that, given the Nigerian economy, “prevention is the cheapest option”.

Professor Anumah stated that as a result of increased inaccessibility to medicines, “more diabetes complications are impending, more strokes, more kidney failures and more gangrenous limbs,” leading to more amputations.

The panelists consisted entirely of patients living with diabetes. One of them, Don Ejiro, said that accessing drugs has now become a terrible experience, with some diabetes medicines now costing four times as much as they used to at the beginning of the year. 

Also, the co-chairman of the coalition and president of the Nigerian Cancer Society, Dr Adamu Umar, noted that Nigeria has the highest burden of diabetes in Africa.

He said “Diabetes is underreported and some people are living with the disease without knowing they have it, so the number we have today may be more because some people don’t know they are living with the disease.

“An event like this is an eye opener for policymakers to do the needful and increase awareness on what we eat, drink, and do to reduce the burden of Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) burden, especially diabetes which has a lot to do with our lifestyles. We want proper implementation of the agreed tax to better the lives of diabetes patients,” he said.

The NASR coalition is a group of health organisations advocating for policy measures to curtail the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, linked to non-communicable diseases like type 2 diabetes, cancer, and hypertension