Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

Illicit cigarette brand top seller in South Africa

South Africa has become the first country in the world with an illegal cigarette brand as a top seller! Illegal cigarettes are preferred for their low prices in South Africa, with the cigarette brand RG retailing at the lowest price of 10 Rand. RG has overtaken all legal brands including the preffered cigarette brand in the country Peter Stuyvesant, giving South Africa the dubious honor of being the first country in the world with an illegal cigarette brand as its top seller.

Lesotho busts illicit South African cigarettes worth 1 Million Rand

Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) has released a statement confirming the confiscation of 380,000 illicit cigarettes at the Maseru Bridge on Sunday night. Confiscation of the cigarettes forms part of the Authority’s routine checks on compliance of tobacco and tobacco products in Lesotho. This is the biggest single bust on illicit cigarettes in Lesotho in the past five years. The cigarettes were worth just over a million Loti, which is a similar amount in South African rands.

Senegal: Methodological workshop on tobacco taxation in West Africa

The CRES has hosted in Dakar a three day workshop (February 22-24) on tobacco taxation in West Africa. Among the participants, Evan Blecher (ACS), Sylviane Ratte (Union), Ebeh Kodjo (ATCA), Noureiny Tcha Kondor (African Consortium), Greg Hallen (IDRC).

Blood cigarettes: cigarette smuggling and war economies in central and eastern Africa

A research paper by Kristof Titeca published in Tobacco Control Journal.

Africa at INB 4: more articles

Several articles about Africa are in the FCA Bulletin 101 (pdf format) including a map on page 2. The articles are about: the West African situation (map), BAT’s complicity in smuggling, Tracking & tracing works in Kenya, Les douanes doivent être davantage impliquées en Afrique.

Africans at INB4 - Illicit tobacco trade in Togo

The article reproduced below in html if from the FCA Bulletin 97 p.3 (pdf format). It is by Trina Tune.

The illicit tobacco trade in Togo is depriving the West African nation of millions of dollars, according to a recent ANCE-Togo report.

Africans at INB4 - Cigarette smuggling and fraudulent practices in Sub-Saharan Africa

The article reproduced below in html format is from the FCA Bulletin 97 p.6 (pdf). It is by Dr. Kristof Titeca.

A report about illicit tobacco trade in South Africa contends industry is wrong: no link between higher taxes and illicit trade

A paper by South African economist Evan Blecher, now with the American Cancer Society, shows that by 2007, illicit trade accounted for up to seven per cent of the total market in South Africa.

However, the evidence shows that tobacco control policy has been successful and only partially undermined by illicit trade; consumption of tobacco products has continued declining while tax revenue has risen, thanks to sharply higher excise taxes.

The full report on pdf format (26 pages) 

Source: FCA Bulletin number 94, page 4 (pdf format)

Cigarette smuggling into Ghana

CIGARETTE SMUGGLING INTO GHANA is an article by Issah Ali, Executive Director of Vision for Alternative Development (VALD), in the page 4 of the issue 88 of the FCA Bulletin (pdf) published sunday at the start of the INB3 conference in Geneva.

Nigeria: BAT's CEO against the FCTC guidelines

'Strict Regulation May Encourage Illegal Tobacco Trade' according to British American Tobacco's Chief Executive, Paul Adams. He has warned that important efforts by governments to reduce the health impact of tobacco could go badly wrong and give illegal and often irresponsible traders and importers of tobacco an avenue to make money, while putting lives at extreme risk.
Source: AllAfrica

Namibia: the Government intends to fight smuggling

As of this month, any business found with fake liquor or cigarettes should expect punishment from the long arm of the law, the Ministry of Finance has announced.
The ministry said it would remove and destroy stock of fake liquor or cigarettes from any business premises without any compensation to the business owner.
Source: AllAfrica