A health policy analysis of the implementation of the National Tobacco Control Act in Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have emerged as a public health issue of concern in Nigeria. The massive increase in tobacco use amongst different population groups is a common NCDs risk factor. To this effect, the National Tobacco Control Act (NTCA) was enacted following the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). This article conducts a health policy agenda-setting analysis of the NTCA using the Kingdon’s multiple streams model and analyses its implementation using the Principal-Agent theory. The purposive and snowballing sampling methods were used to select and review relevant peer-review literature. Other data sources included gray literature, government reports, Non-Governmental Organization briefs and media resources. Though NTCA conforms to WHO FCTC, Nigeria only domesticated her obligation to this framework legislatively while the executive and administrative measures were found lacking. The challenges and gaps identified in the NTCA implementation include; revision of textual health warnings and lack of pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs, poor taxation, and the National Tobacco Control Commission’s (NTCC) lack of regulatory autonomy, hence, the poor policy implementation reported in this article. To effectively implement NTCA, a review of textual warnings, enforcement of pictorial warnings, regulatory autonomy of the NTCC and review of the tobacco taxation are suggested to help in the prevention and control of NCDs.