Deputy Minister of Information, Hon Fatimatu Abubakar has disclosed that Ghana has made great progress in terms of tobacco control and its regulations.
She revealed that Ghana introduced protocols to eliminate trade in tobacco products and it came into force in January 2020 after it was ratified by Parliament in 2019.
According to her, “against the backdrop of a growing population of youth and an increase in the burden of non-communicable diseases, the number of tobacco users in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to increase to 62 million by 2025.”
She said this during a media capacity-building training on Tobacco Control and Tobacco Taxation in Ghana.
The training was organised by Vision for Alternative Development (VALD-Ghana) in collaboration with the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG).
It was basically designed to train journalists, editors, and media owners on tobacco control and tobacco taxation as a tool for health financing.
“Ghana continues to join member states of the framework convention of tobacco control and the WHO to advance the fight against tobacco use to eliminate the threat associated with its use. In Ghana, about 70080 men and 24,900 thousand women smoke daily killing more than 6700 Ghanaians every year. Making it a dye public health threat.
However, Most tobacco-related death occurs in low and middle-income countries it is estimated that if tobacco prevention and control policies are not implemented, smoking prevalence in Africa will increase by over a 3rd in 2030 from 15.8 per cent in 2010 to 21.9 per cent; leading to premature death and a rise in cardiovascular diseases.”
VALD-Ghana as part of efforts to increase media and public awareness of the effects of tobacco and its social and economic threats has undertaken diverse initiatives such as facilitating research on “The Economics of Tobacco Control/Taxation in Ghana” which established a significant relationship between price reforms and consumption.
It was such that an increase in taxes results in a decline in consumption which is an effective tool to control tobacco use, especially among the youth, which also improves health outcomes and generates substantial revenue to the government.” This has been a long journey in the fight against tobacco,” Tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable deaths, locally and nationally. Flavored or starter products for youth create a whole new generation of users,” she said.
“And it is racist common practices in Black, Latinx and the Native community for decades around the marketing, sale and the positioning of products in the community.”
Mr. Labram Musah, Executive Director of Programs, VALD Ghana said “in its latest report, it plans to promote a smoking ban in certain parks and beaches, in conjunction with local authorities by voluntary measures or by the introduction of by-laws.”
On his part, the President of PRINPAG, Mr. Andrew Edwin Arthur in his submission called on the government to implement the plain packaging of tobacco products and enforce a comprehensive ban on all forms of tobacco products to win the fight against this menace.
He also urged the media to use their outfit to educate the public on the dangers of tobacco product use in order to reduce or eliminate the current growth rate among the citizens, especially the youth.
