News & Events

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.

The Africa Policy Circle held its bi-monthly meeting on May 27, 2022. The theme of the webinar was focused on the rising costs of living in Africa due to various factors, one of them being the ongoing Russia and Ukraine conflict. Members from Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa presented their country experiences which were followed by in-depth session discussions. Dr. Chukwuka Onyekwena’s presentation was on the Rising cost of inflation in Nigeria.

Download slides here

CSEA together with the African School of Economics (ASE) hosted participants for the inception meeting of the JPAL-Africa Evidence-Informed Policymaking (EIP) learning series on May 24, 2022 in Abuja, Nigeria.

 The event featured information sharing by JPAL on its work and the roles of various partners in this space, with the objective of scoping complementarities and understanding how ongoing EIP efforts can be supported. The event also helped participants and the facilitators confirm topics of greatest interest to partners for the upcoming learning series, which will hopefully create a space to discuss common challenges and practical approaches to EIP in Nigeria.

The Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA) with support from the Knowledge to Policy Center (K2P) of the American University Beirut convened key stakeholders from the tobacco control space on Wednesday, May 18, 2022, at the National policy dialogue on 'Promoting Effective Tobacco Taxation System in Nigeria'.
This program is part of the K2P mentorship program of the AUB-Knowledge to Policy (K2P) Center. The dialogue featured a presentation from the CSEA project team followed by deliberations among stakeholders on tobacco taxation in Nigeria. Highlights from Nigeria’s scorecard on tobacco tax implementation indicated a weak taxation system.

The event concluded with a plenary session where actionable steps and recommendations for the improvement of strategies for tobacco control in Nigeria were proposed.
They include-

• Collaboration between government agencies and CSOs 
• Partnership with research institutions/universities
• Consumer sensitization.

The Centre for the Studies of Economies of Africa in collaboration with Knowledge to Policy Center (K2P) of the American University Beirut held a virtual workshop with key stakeholders from the Tobacco industry titled “Policymaking Process and the Use of Evidence in the Health Sector” on Tuesday 17, May 2022.

The webinar featured presentations by CSEA’s Director of Research Dr. Adedeji Adeniran and University of Beirut’s Evidence Lead Specialist Clara Abou Samra.

The workshop was aimed at helping policymakers in the health sector: i) Gain a broader understanding of how policies are made in Nigeria. ii) Understand the factors that exert the most influences on the policymaking process iii) Recognise processes present in Nigeria to promote the use of evidence in policymaking and importance of building Institutional capacity to support use of evidence in policies and practice.