2016 law dusted off

The Gambia’s 2016 National Tobacco Control Act will be implemented from next month, according to a story in The Point quoting an official at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MHSW).
The newspaper reported that concerns had been rising because of the delay in the implementation of the Act, which was passed by the National Assembly and signed into law by former President, Yahya Jammeh.
The Act is meant, in part, to impact the demand and supply of tobacco and tobacco-related products, and incorporate provisions of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
But since the Act became law, little has been done to enforce its provisions.
After passing the Act in 2016, legislators recommended that the MHSW should conduct a three-months nationwide public familiarization campaign so that people would be aware of its provisions. But the campaign stalled because of a political impasse that occurred immediately after the 2016 Presidential elections.
The implementation of the Act was also hit by the campaign’s being inadequately resourced and a change of ministers at the MHSW.
Meanwhile, Omar Badjie, an official with the MHSW, told The Point that his Ministry was working closely with the Ministry of Justice to finalize the ‘commencement order for the full implementation’ of the Act to take place. This process was due to be completed before the end of December.
Badjie said that ‘full implementation of the Act’ would ‘commence across the country’ by January.
He said also that the MHSW and its partners had been conducting a familiarization campaign for the past few months and that the campaign would continue. “Government is fully committed to the implementation of the Tobacco Control Act 2016,” Badjie said.