… Demands urgent crackdown
By Chioma Obinna
No fewer than 573 new and emerging nicotine products, many designed and marketed to attract young Nigerians have flooded the country’s retail and digital spaces in just three months, exposing what health advocates described as dangerous loopholes in Nigeria’s tobacco control laws.
In a new report unveiled Thursday in Lagos by Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), it warned that Nigeria is witnessing the rapid normalisation of nicotine consumption among a generation that had previously shown declining interest in traditional cigarettes.
Presenting findings from structured surveillance conducted between October and December 2025 in Lagos, Enugu, and the Federal Capital Territory, CAPPA documented 781 nicotine and tobacco-related products. Of these, 573 fall into the category of new and emerging nicotine and tobacco products (NENTPs), including e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and heated tobacco products.
E-cigarettes alone accounted for 522 variants.
“What we found is a layered nicotine ecosystem that is embedding itself into everyday consumer culture,” said Akinbode Oluwafemi, CAPPA’s Executive Director, at the launch of the report titled New Smoke Trap: “New and Emerging Nicotine and Tobacco Products, Youth Exposure and Policy Gaps in Nigeria”.
“These products sit beside snacks, electronics, and cosmetics. They are sleek, flavoured, and framed as lifestyle accessories. But beneath the design is nicotine the same addictive substance that has driven tobacco profits for decades,” he said.
According to the report, nicotine pouches often marketed as “tobacco-free” were widely promoted online, with strengths ranging from 3mg to as high as 100mg per pouch. Some brands did not clearly display nicotine levels on packaging while advertising high-strength products digitally. Heated tobacco products, though fewer in number, are being positioned as premium lifestyle devices for affluent early adopters.
CAPPA warned that these products are exploiting definitional and regulatory gaps in Nigeria’s National Tobacco Control Act 2015, which was primarily designed to regulate combustible tobacco products.
“Our existing framework was constructed around the burning of tobacco leaves,”
Oluwafemi said: “It does not adequately anticipate or address modern nicotine delivery systems engineered to sit at the margins of existing definitions.”
He cautioned against the growing narrative that alternative nicotine products represent harm-reduction tools.
“In Nigeria, these products are not replacing cigarettes at scale. They are layering new consumption formats onto an existing environment and drawing in young people who have never previously smoked,” he said. “They are entry points, not exit ramps.”
“The absence of smoke does not mean the absence of harm. If we fail to close these gaps now, we risk entrenching a new cycle of nicotine addiction among Nigeria’s youth.”
Speaking, Professor Lekan Ayo-Yusuf of the Africa Centre for Tobacco Industry Monitoring and Policy Research described the development as a familiar global pattern in which industry innovation outpaces policy response.
“Regulate nicotine, not just tobacco products. Where countries adopted product-neutral definitions that cover all nicotine delivery systems, they closed loopholes early. Nigeria has that opportunity now,” he urged.
He also warned that youth uptake rises where marketing restrictions are weak, particularly online.
“Protection must extend to digital environments. Age verification must be meaningful, not symbolic. Delayed regulation protects markets and institutionalises nicotine dependence.”
CAPPA is recommending that all nicotine delivery systems regardless of whether they contain tobacco leaf be brought clearly under regulatory oversight; that emerging products be integrated into the excise tax framework; and that digital advertising, influencer marketing, and online sales be explicitly regulated.
The group also called for stronger coordination among health, trade, standards, taxation, and consumer protection agencies, noting divergent institutional interpretations that allow products to slip through enforcement cracks.
With more than 70 per cent of Nigeria’s population under 30, CAPPA warned that failure to act decisively could reverse hard-won tobacco control gains.
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