WDD: Nigeria must fix food environment to curb disease burden – CAPPA

From Idu Jude, Abuja

As the world marks World Diabetes Day 2026 on November 14 under the theme “Early Action on Diabetes”, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has called on federal and state governments to integrate clinical treatment and tackle the commercial and structural drivers of Nigeria’s escalating diabetes burden.

In a statement, CAPPA emphasised that while early screening and timely medical care are vital, genuine “early action” starts with primary prevention, particularly by transforming Nigeria’s food environment so that healthy, nutritious and culturally appropriate whole foods are affordable and accessible to every citizen before chronic illness takes hold.

According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), Nigeria has the highest number of adults (20-79 years) with diabetes in Africa, while nearly three in four adults on the continent remain undiagnosed, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), leaving millions vulnerable to life-threatening complications such as kidney failure, blindness, stroke and amputations. Meanwhile, Nigerian households already spend an estimated N1.92 trillion annually out of pocket treating diet-linked non-communicable diseases (NCDs), pushing vulnerable families deeper into poverty.

CAPPA’s Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, stressed that diabetes prevention is beyond mere individual discipline or willpower, arguing that the Nigerian food environment is increasingly being shaped by aggressive marketing, misleading product claims, unhealthy food affordability and commercial interests that are often allowed to take precedence over public health.

Last year, CAPPA’s Junk On Our Plates report revealed that food and beverage corporations deploy aggressive and deceptive marketing strategies to promote ultra-processed, high-sugar and high-sodium products across seven Nigerian states, contributing to a rise in chronic non-communicable diseases. The findings highlight targeted advertising toward children, youth and low-income communities, alongside misleading nutrition labels, cultural co-optation and celebrity endorsements.

“We cannot keep telling Nigerians to eat healthily while allowing unhealthy food and beverages to dominate our markets, schools, advertisements, and public spaces. Early action on diabetes must begin with enacting and implementing strong regulatory policies that make healthy choices possible, affordable and accessible, not simply with advising people to change their dietary behaviour,” Oluwafemi said.

To stem the tide of diet-related diseases and protect future generations, CAPPA urged policymakers and regulatory agencies to take immediate action on five priority fronts.

Firstly, it called for the finalisation and enforcement of a pending pro-health Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB) tax. The organisation urged that, following the Senate’s passage of the SSB tax review bill earlier this year, the House of Representatives and the Executive must swiftly conclude legislative action to institute an inflation-adjusted excise tax of at least 20 per cent of the final retail price, in line with WHO recommendations.

“Crucially, revenue generated from the tax must be transparently ring-fenced to fund prevention, control, and management of diet-related non-communicable diseases, primary healthcare, diabetes screening, subsidies for healthy local foods and other nutrition programmes,” Oluwafemi said.

CAPPA also advocated mandatory front-of-pack warning labels (FOPWL), urging the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (FMoH&SW) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to expedite action on introducing mandatory, easy-to-read FOPWL on pre-packaged products high in sugar, sodium and unhealthy fats.

“Consumers have a fundamental right to know what is in their food without having to decode tiny, obscured print on the back of packages, as is currently the case,” the statement added.

CAPPA also called for a ban on predatory marketing, especially to children, and on the use of child actors in marketing and commercials, as well as for the enforcement of healthy school food environments.

“Government must enact statutory restrictions banning the marketing and sponsorship of sugary drinks and ultra-processed foods targeted at children and adolescents across television, digital platforms, and public spaces. Furthermore, all states must enforce the Federal Government’s public food procurement guidelines to ensure schools, hospitals, and public institutions serve nutritious meals rather than ultra-processed products,” the organisation said.

Additionally, it canvassed the rejection of ultra-processed food industry interference in healthy food policies and “healthwashing”, a deceptive marketing practice where the industry uses misleading health claims, buzzwords or lifestyle imagery to make a product appear healthy or nutritious.

The organisation called on policymakers to safeguard nutrition and public health policymaking from ultra-processed food industry lobbyists who push ineffective voluntary self-regulation or use deceptive “fortification” claims to mask the harms of high-sugar, high-sodium products.

“Adding selected micronutrients to a sugary drink or a high-sodium bouillon cube does not erase excessive sugar, salt or other nutritional concerns. Fortification must never become a marketing licence to disguise unhealthy products or undermine policies that seek to reduce their consumption,” CAPPA said, in reference to the ongoing push for mandatory bouillon cube fortification in Nigeria that has been condemned by many public health experts.

Lastly, the organisation called for the strengthening of primary healthcare and support for local food systems.

CAPPA called on federal and state governments to expand budgetary allocations to equip Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) with free or subsidised blood glucose testing, essential medicines and local insulin production, while redirecting agricultural incentives toward smallholder farmers producing indigenous fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

“Diabetes is not inevitable, and early action against the condition must include action against the commercial practices that make unhealthy diets increasingly difficult to avoid,” Oluwafemi added. “On this World Diabetes Day, we call on Nigerian lawmakers and regulators to choose the health and productivity of our people over the profit margins of ultra-processed food corporations.”