In commemoration of the 2022 World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) tagged the theme “Protect the Environment’’, a coalition of non-governmental organisations including Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA), Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA) have called on the Federal Government to reinvigorate the enforcement of the smoke-free public places policy and the ban on Tobacco Advertising Promotion and Sponsorships (TAPS).

The NGOs made this call at a news conference in Abuja on May 30, 2022. Augustine Iraoya, Research Associate at CSEA urged the Federal Government to increase 25 per cent tax on tobacco to 75 per cent to meet WHO standards. He noted that globally, tobacco smoking keeps reducing in other continents but in Africa, it keeps increasing due to lack of control and enforcement of the smoke-free public places policy.

He called on the Nigerian government needs to increase and enforce its tax on tobacco because tobacco is not only harmful to the environment but also endangers the health of consumers and non- consumers.