Hike Tobacco, Alcohol, Sugary Drink Taxes By 50%, WHO Urges Nigeria, Others

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called on Nigeria and other countries to use health taxes to increase the real retail prices of tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks by 50 per cent by 2035.

WHO presents this as a public health and financing strategy to reduce harmful consumption, prevent disease, and generate an estimated $1 trillion in additional public revenue globally over the next decade.

The initiative is especially relevant for Nigeria, where Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) already place a heavy burden on households and the health system, and NCDs account for 27 per cent of all deaths.

Key drivers include tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, and unhealthy diets high in sugar and salt. This is why well-designed health taxes matter as both a public health and domestic financing tool.

WHO launched the 3 by 35 Initiative in July 2025, emphasising that well-designed health taxes can reduce harmful consumption, save lives, and generate revenue for governments to allocate to health and other social priorities.

They can also support progress towards SDG target 3.4 on premature NCD mortality and strengthen domestic financing for universal health coverage (UHC).

Analyses from the WHO and other organisations have consistently shown that raising the prices of harmful products through taxation reduces consumption.

Assistant director-general for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Care at the WHO, Dr Jeremy Farrar, noted during a WHO press briefing that if taxation is increased, consumption of tobacco and alcohol will decrease.

“The evidence from tobacco is obviously very extremely strong: that if taxation is increased, consumption reduces, and we can anticipate from the existing evidence that this will be true for alcohol and sugary drinks as well.”

Between 2012 and 2022, nearly 140 countries raised tobacco taxes enough to increase real prices by more than 50 per cent on average, demonstrating that large-scale tax reform is feasible.

Similar tax strategies for alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) have also reduced consumption in multiple settings, especially where taxes are well designed and maintained in real terms.

Despite such evidence, many countries, including Nigeria, still use tax structures that are too weak to change behaviour at scale. WHO has warned that alcoholic and sugary drinks are becoming more affordable in many countries because tax rates are not keeping pace with inflation and income growth, weakening the public health effect of excise policy.

Nigeria’s current SSB excise tax remains modest. The Finance Act 2021 set an excise duty of N10 per litre on non-alcoholic, carbonated, and sweetened beverages, which took effect from 1 January 2022.

Civil society advocates, including Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), have argued that this level is too low to significantly reduce consumption or generate substantial revenue, and they have called for a much stronger rate.

WHO’s earlier guidance on sugary drinks noted that fiscal policies that raise retail prices by at least 20 per cent can reduce consumption, while the newer 3 by 35 initiative sets a more ambitious long-term benchmark of 50 per cent real price increases across tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks by 2035.

CAPPA argued that Nigeria’s current SSB tax design leaves major health and fiscal gains unrealised.

In a 2025 advocacy statement, the organisation said Nigeria could be missing out on more than N200 billion in annual revenue and called for an increase to at least N130 per litre.