Tag: Ghana

Ghana’s Tobacco Control Strategy

Image: Asada
Ghana’s government has developed a five-year National Tobacco Control Strategy (NTCS) with a goal of decreasing the consumption rate of tobacco in the country, reports The Ghanaian Times. The end goal of the NTCS is to eradicate all tobacco usage.
The Ministry of Health, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), the World Health Organization and the United Nations Development Program put the strategy plan together along with advocate policymakers on tobacco control.
According to Baffour Awuah, acting director of the Technical Coordination Directorate of the Ministry of Health, cardiovascular disease rates due to increased smoking are rising.
“The strategy we are launching today is the climax of extensive collaboration, research and commitment by various stakeholders, experts and civil society,” Awuah said. “Its purpose is to guide us in combatting the devastating effects of tobacco use, both in terms of health and the economy.
“It aims to ensure effective coordination among agencies involved in tobacco control, setting clear goals and adopting strategic timelines.”
Awuah encouraged stakeholders to actively engage in discussions to help transform the document into tangible action.
Olivia Boateng, director in charge of tobacco and substance abuse at the FDA, stated that illicit trade in tobacco products has made them more accessible at lower prices. The country has made progress in tobacco control policies, but the illicit trade has “amplified the tobacco epidemic,” according to Boateng.
Stakeholders will be trained on the protocol to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products in the country once the NTCS is implemented, according to Boateng.
November 16, 2023
Ghana Outlaws Vape Sales and Promotion

Ghana has banned all recreational use of vaping and e-cigarette products.
In a press release, the country’s Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) states that the “sale, advertisement and recreational use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) such as vapes and other non-nicotine tobacco products by the public” is illegal.
However, ENDS can be registered as a prescription-only medicine for the purposes of cessation therapy.
The FDA claims it has sent notice to manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, and retailers to remove all advertisements on social media, billboards and neon signs immediately and refrain from the importation of the products.
The FDA states that there “will be repercussions including sanctions” for failure to adhere to the rules.
July 9, 2023
Alarm About Illicit Cigarettes in Ghana

Photo: Dietmar Temps
One in every five cigarettes in Ghana is illicit, reports Business Ghana, citing research conducted by Arti Singh, a faculty member of the School of Public Health at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
The study revealed that close to half of illicit tobacco products originate in neighboring Togo. In the border town of Aflao, more than 90 percent of packs studied turned out to be illicit.
Singh attributed the prevalence of illegal stock to porous borders and low awareness among stakeholders, among other factors.
Out of 384 retailers interviewed, close to half were unaware of illicit tobacco. A third was unaware of tobacco control laws on illicit products.
The study recommended the implementation of a track-and-trace system, enforcement of restrictions on single-stick sales and the implementation and enforcement of an illicit tobacco protocol. Ghana is in the process ratifying the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, according to Olivia Agyekumwaa Boateng, head of the country’s tobacco and substance abuse department at the food and drugs authority.
The study also suggested educational campaigns to inform retailers on tobacco control laws and illicit tobacco products.
The illicit tobacco trade study was carried out as part of the Tobacco Control Capacity Program, which aims to improve research capacity in low-income and middle-income countries and conduct high-quality studies that will generate evidence on how to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by tobacco use.
Led by Professor Linda Bauld from the University of Edinburgh, the program is funded by a grant from Research Councils U.K.
September 6, 2021
Call For Probe Into Security Contract
Image: Kurious from Pixabay
Jeorge Wilson Kingson, chairman of the Media Alliance in Tobacco Control and Health, has called for a probe into circumstances that led to the suspension of a contract between the government of Ghana and the U.K. security printing firm De La Rue, reports Modern Ghana.
In September 2020, the Ghana Revenue Authority signed a five-year contract with De La Rue to create a track-and-trace excise tax stamp system to combat the growing illicit trade in cigarettes
However, the deal was suspended after it became clear that De La Rue outsourced the contract to Atos, an IT company with links to the tobacco industry.
The World Health Organization requires providers of anti-illicit trade systems to be independent of the tobacco industry, suggesting the sector is complicit in smuggling its own products.
Despite the outcry at the time about the tobacco links, the government and other agencies have gone silent on the issue. Kingson says this makes it look as if the issue has been swept under the carpet.
April 19, 2021
Graphic warnings for Ghana
By the start of next month, Ghana’s tobacco-products suppliers are due to stop distributing products whose packaging does not include graphic health warnings, according to the Ghana News Agency.
The Tobacco Control Measures of the Public Health Act of 2012 (Act 851) and Tobacco Control Regulations of 2016 (LI 2247) mandated the inclusion of graphic health warnings on all tobacco-products packs within 18 months of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) publishing the health-warnings source documents.
The FDA made the source documents available to the tobacco industry in April 2017.
The Vision for Alternative Development (VALD), a non-governmental, anti-tobacco organization, commended the FDA on the implementation of the graphic health warnings.
It said the introduction of pictorial warnings on tobacco products was essential for reaching smokers with low education and literacy, and would help to reduce disparities in health knowledge.
In a statement, VALD said health warnings on tobacco packages constituted an important method to informing and educating the public about the harms of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke.
September 27, 2018
Ghana decries singles sales
The Vision for Alternative Development (VALD), a non-governmental organization has called on Ghana’s Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to ban the sale of single cigarettes with immediate effect, according to a Ghana News Agency story.
It reportedly said that the sale of single cigarettes had encouraged young people to smoke, and that smoking was destroying their lives through disease.
Labram Musah, the programs director of VALD, made the call for the ban at a news conference in Accra held to highlight the results of the survey conducted by VALD in collaboration with the Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) in 10 capital cities of Africa: Sale of Single Stick of Cigarette to Kids.
The survey was conducted also in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Togo and Uganda.
Musah said the sale of single cigarettes was problematic because it made smoking more affordable to young people and others with limited resources.
“Single stick cigarette sale facilitates experimentation among the youth who have not yet become regular smokers,” he said. “This is one of the major reasons the tobacco industry vehemently opposes sale of cigarettes in a pack of 20 sticks.”
Meanwhile, Musah urged the MoH and FDA and all relevant authorities to monitor British America Tobacco and Philip Morris International to prevent them from supplying free promotional materials to tobacco retailers in order to create recognition of their brands and encourage the sale of their products.
He said the authorities should enforce the ban on all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and that this should include any promotional materials related to single sticks.
And he urged the authorities to ensure that cigarettes were not sold close to educational institutions, hospitals, children’s playgrounds and places where children are cared for.
April 3, 2018
Ghanaians battling NCDs
The Ghana Non-Communicable Disease Alliance (GNCDA) is worried about what it sees as an upsurge of alcoholism and ‘excessive smoking’ in the country, especially among young Ghanaians, according to a story broadcast by the Ghana Broadcasting Corp.
Speaking at the official launch of the GNCDA in Accra, the group’s vice chairperson, Adams Ebenezer, said that exposing children to these harmful products was a violation of their human rights.
The GNCDA is a newly-formed network of Non-Governmental Organizations that was officially registered this year with the mission of becoming a leading organization contributing to reducing NCD-related deaths and disabilities, and improving the quality of lives of people living with NCDs.
It aims to support and complement the government.
Shisha tobacco had become a lifestyle product among many of the country’s young people, who were ignorant about the danger posed by the use of this product, Ebenezer said. Research had shown that a session of shisha smoking was the equivalent of smoking 100-150 cigarettes.
Ebenezer said the only known way of reducing health issues such as lung cancer, oral cancer, neck cancer, heart disease, hypertension, obesity and extreme poverty was to exercise absolute control over tobacco use, exposure to tobacco smoke and alcohol.
February 26, 2018
Another call for shisha ban
The Vision for Alternative Development, the Ghana Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance and other civil society organizations have issued a petition calling on Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) immediately to ban the smoking of shisha in the country, according to a Ghana News Agency story.
The petition said that under the Public Health Act of 2012 (Act 851), specifically part six, (Tobacco Control Measures), shisha must be considered an illicit product that was causing negative health consequences for young people, who were the main targets of shisha.
‘Apart from the known diseases such as heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease and problems during pregnancy, smokers are at high risk of infectious diseases such as TB, Hepatitis, among other diseases,’ the petition said.
The World Health Organization was quoted as saying in a recent advisory note to regulators that smoking shisha posed grave health risks.
The WHO had said it was commonly believed that shisha reduced the risks of smoking because shisha smoke was passed through water.
But the WHO insisted that even after it had been passed through water, the smoke produced contained high levels of toxic compounds, including carbon monoxide, heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals.
The petition said it was believed that the import of shisha products was illegal.
It said all tobacco products must be registered with the FDA before they were allowed entry into the country.
It said shisha products were being imported from neighboring countries through unapproved routes. Some of these products displayed no country of origin and it was not known what their constituents were.
Any product, including tobacco, that did not display its country of origin was illicit, therefore shisha was an illicit product and must be immediately banned, the petitioners said.
January 12, 2018