Nigeria: Son Unfolds New Labeling Requirement for Tobacco Manufacturers

Source from:  Vanguard (Lagos) 29 May 2008 05/30/2008

Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), has unfolded new labeling requirement for tobacco manufacturers and importers, saying it will be effective from 1st of July, 2008. The director general/chief executive (SON) Dr.John Akanya during the workshop on the reviewed cigarette standards , Tuesday in Lagos, said from July henceforth all cigarette packs should carry the following signs , namely, it must have a conspicuous reminder that cigarettes should not be sold to person under 18 years of age, the proof of quality must be assigned only by SON, help everyone remember to 'Keep Nigeria Clean', adding that the Federal Ministry of Health's warning must be displayed on 30 percent of the back and front panels. He also said that the organization tends to go beyond the chemical and technical aspect of cigarette to include the packaging and labeling requirement as it is done in most advanced countries of the world. He said that setting packing and labeling standard will help to ensure that only products that are made for sales in Nigeria are actually present in the market and gave companies time to change their production process. "There is confidence that the new packaging and labeling requirement are a major step towards sanitizing the cigarette industry in Nigeria. For this reason, it will take time for those products that are already in the market to be sold ," he said "We all know that smoking is bad for health. But the reality is that in spite of this fact, millions of Nigerians still smoke cigarettes. To allow them to start consuming counterfeit cigarettes would have been like standing by and watching them jump from frying pan to fire! In order to stop this trend from continuing, SON took up the challenge to rid the Nigerian market of those products by testing cigarettes and confiscating and destroying any product found to be substandard. By 2004, the incidence of counterfeit cigarettes in Nigeria had been reduced from over 50% in 2001 to less than 10 per cent in 2004! He said the fight against sub-standard and counterfeit cigarettes still continues, and in order to ensure that there is a regulatory framework that serves as a basis for determining the minimum standards for cigarettes, SON developed a set of standards for cigarettes in Nigeria. The standards set out the minimum requirements that cigarettes must meet for them to be acceptable in the Nigeria market. I am proud to inform you that the Nigeria Cigarette Standards is one of the most advanced, if not the only set of standards for cigarettes in Africa. In furtherance of this objective, the Technical Committee on tobacco products spent months reviewing the Standards to include packaging and labeling requirements in line with what obtains in most developed countries. "I must point out here that it is not the intention of SON to force legal businesses that trade in tobacco products out of the country. Because we believe that it is actually in the best interest of society to have legal businesses selling tobacco products in Nigeria. If the legal businesses are forced out from the country, people will still continue to smoke and the only thing that will then happen is that criminals will come in to fill the void created by the exit of legal businesses. This is why in developing and reviewing the standards, we involved representatives from the tobacco industry in the technical committee. Enditem