Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

Up in smoke? Global Tobacco Control Advocacy and local mobilization in Africa

Up in smoke? Global Tobacco Control Advocacy and local mobilization in Africa, is a paper by Amy S Patterson and Elizabeth Gil, published in Oxford's International Affairs. Unfortunately, only the abstract is accessible for free. To access it for 24 hour, would cost you $45! I doubt many of our readers can make such an investment. I was allowed to read it via a friend who had access. It is a discussion on how much the big donors (like Gates and Bloomberg) influence/control the type of advocacy organized locally and how they could be wrong. Comments from advocates would be interesting, if they were willing to comment. It's hard to compare countries. Here the focus is on Ghana, Rwanda and Tanzania. I'll leave at that for now. Time for Le grande Thanksgiving, le jour de merci donnant... thank you Art. Rereading this post in 2021 and looking for Amy Patterson, I find this opinion she wrote for the Washington Post for WNTD 2021. She seems to miss the fact there is no difference between Bloomberg/GF and WHO as they are the main funders of WHO.

Regional Workshop on Policy Coordination for Tobacco Control to Address TC Coordination Challenges 16-18 October 2013 Kigali

The countries that  participated are: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea Equatorial, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. My question is: how were those countries selected? why? by whom? How much did the workshop cost? What about a cybermeeting instead of moving all those people? Information published by CTCA

Rwanda: BAT Donates $10K to Needy Students

British American Tobacco, Rwanda (BAT) awarded over Rwf 5 million (about $10K) to twelve needy students at the Kigali Independent University(ULK): that is less than $1000 per student.

Rwanda: according to Dr Agnes Binagwaho smoking prevalence is down

The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Agnes Binagwaho has revealed that the country's public consumption levels of tobacco have relatively gone down compared to the previous years.

Source: AllAfrica  See also the GYTS survey on our blog about Tobacco Prevalence in Africa

Rwanda: Public Tobacco Smoking Down – Minisante - AllAfrica
July 13, 2009

RDC, Rwanda, South Africa: Mastermind Tobacco CEO accused of evading taxes and financing the war

Several sources, including the latest UN report on the war in the DRC on 10 December 2008 (S/2008/773) have provided evidence that Mastermind CEO, Tribert Ayabatwa Rujiguro has been in touch with rebels involved in the war in DRC.

In all reports, the president of the Master Mind Group, of which Congo Tobacco Company (CTC), based in Goma (East of DRC) and producer of cigarettes Super Match is a subsidiary, is named.

Following a complaint by the authorities of South Africa, the president of the industry that produces the Super Match cigarette in Goma, was arrested in early November in London on the basis of an arrest warrant for "tax evasion" issued by South Africa.

If the judicial procedure followed its normal course, he should be extradited to South Africa to stand trial.
The South Africans would have seized as a precaution a few valuable assets belonging to Master Mind, including an aircraft, houses, vehicles and cash in cash with a value of 58 million rands.

Referring to the Master Mind Group, the Ugandan weekly "The East African" noted in its issue on 5 December 2005 through the "Industry moves to stub out illicit cigarette trade," that this group is the subject of a thorough investigation by Interpol because the manufacturer is considered as the most involved in the fraud that exists in the DRC, Kenya and Uganda.

According to information from Bandundu,one of 11 province of DRC, for more than three years, the company has used false statements of the provincial tax by falsifying documents and declaring in sales and receptions Super Match cigarettes in the province of Bandundu. Worse, it would pay its way or not to pay the provincial tax altogether. According to the governorate of Bandundu, which has in its sights CTC, it has never paid even 10% of what it owed to the province. That, at least, gives a total minimum of U.S. $ 157,000 (One hundred fifty-seven thousand dollars U.S.) as a loss to the province over a period of three years. This, in turn, enabled him to make a huge profit, and maintain prices at the stem of his cigarette to 10 Congolese Franc from 2003 to 2007 despite all the fluctuations in that country (U.S. $ 1 was equal 500 Congolese Francs in 2007).

RDC, Rwanda, Afrique du Sud: Mastermind accusé de fraude fiscale et impliqué dans le financement de la guerre

Patrick Musavuli a communiqué ce dossier sur le Groupe Mastermind et son dirigeant Tribert Rujugiro, proche conseiller du Président Kagame.

Plusieurs sources dont  le dernier rapport des nations unies sur la guerre en RDC du 10 décembre 2008 (S/2008/773) ont fourni des preuves que le dirigeant du Groupe Mastermind qui comprend la Congo Tobacco Company basée à Goma entretient la guerre en RDC et est donc de ce fait responsable des centaines de milliers des déplacés de guerre avec comme conséquences l'insécurité, les violences faites aux femmes et aux enfants, la recrudescence des épidémies tel que le choléra, des centaines des morts.

Results of the Rwanda-National (Ages 13-15) Global Youth Tobacco Survey GYTS

Here are the results of the Rwanda-National (Ages 13-15) Global Youth Tobacco Survey GYTS (pdf document).

The Rwanda-NationalGYTS includes data on prevalence of cigarette and other tobacco use as well as information on five determinants of tobacco use: access/availability and price, exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS), cessation, media and advertising, and school curriculum.

Rwanda Will Move to Control Tobacco Advertising

Rwanda's health ministry has vowed to take serious measures against tobacco advertisement in the country. The ministry according to the director of Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) seeks to effect a total ban on advertising and promoting tobacco.
Source: All Africa and East African Business Week