By Venica Uchechukwu, Enugu

As the world commemorates the 2026 World Diabetes Day on November 14, the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has called on federal and state governments to urgently reform Nigeria’s food environment to tackle the rising burden of diabetes and other diet-related diseases.

In a statement signed by its Media and Communications Officer, Robert Egbe, the organization said government interventions must go beyond clinical treatment and routine screening to address the commercial and structural factors encouraging unhealthy dietary habits. 

With this year’s theme, “Early Action on Diabetes,” CAPPA stressed that genuine prevention begins with making nutritious, affordable and culturally appropriate foods accessible to all Nigerians.

According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), Nigeria has the highest number of adults aged 20 to 79 living with diabetes in Africa, while the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nearly three out of every four adults with diabetes on the continent remain undiagnosed. 

CAPPA warned that millions consequently face potentially life-threatening complications, including kidney failure, blindness, stroke and amputations.

The organization further disclosed that Nigerian households spend an estimated N1.92 trillion annually out of pocket treating diet-related non-communicable diseases, worsening the financial challenges confronting vulnerable families. 

Its Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, argued that diabetes prevention should not be reduced to individual discipline, noting that aggressive marketing, misleading product claims and the affordability of unhealthy foods increasingly shape Nigerians’ dietary choices.

CAPPA recalled that its 2025 report, titled Junk On Our Plates, exposed alleged aggressive and deceptive marketing strategies by food and beverage corporations promoting ultra-processed, high-sugar and high-sodium products across seven Nigerian states. 

The report identified targeted advertising towards children, young people and low-income communities, misleading nutrition labels, celebrity endorsements and the use of cultural symbols to promote unhealthy products.

“We cannot keep telling Nigerians to eat healthily while allowing unhealthy food and beverages to dominate our markets, schools, advertisements and public spaces. Early action on diabetes must begin with strong regulatory policies that make healthy choices possible, affordable and accessible,” Oluwafemi said.

To reverse the trend, CAPPA outlined five priority areas requiring urgent government intervention. First, it called for the finalization and enforcement of a pro-health Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB) tax, urging the House of Representatives and the Executive to conclude legislative action following the Senate’s passage of the SSB tax review bill earlier this year.

The organization advocated an inflation-adjusted excise tax of at least 20 per cent of the final retail price of sugar-sweetened beverages, in line with WHO recommendations. It also urged government to transparently dedicate the revenue generated to funding diabetes prevention, primary healthcare, screening, treatment, subsidies for healthy local foods and other nutrition programmed.

CAPPA equally advocated mandatory Front-of-Pack Warning Labels (FOPWL) on packaged products containing excessive sugar, sodium and unhealthy fats. 

It urged the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to expedite the introduction of visible, simple and easy-to-understand labels to enable consumers to make informed dietary decisions.

The organization called for statutory restrictions on predatory food marketing, particularly advertisements targeting children and adolescents, including the use of child actors to promote sugary drinks and ultra-processed foods. 

It also urged states to enforce healthy school food policies and federal public food procurement guidelines to ensure that schools, hospitals and public institutions serve nutritious meals.

CAPPA urged policymakers to protect public health policies from interference by ultra-processed food industry lobbyists and reject what it described as corporate “health washing”—the use of misleading health claims and lifestyle imagery to make unhealthy products appear nutritious.

It specifically cautioned against using food fortification claims to disguise the excessive sugar and sodium content of certain products. 

“Adding selected micro-nutrients to a sugary drink or a high-sodium bouillon cube does not erase excessive sugar, salt or other nutritional concerns. Fortification must never become a marketing license to disguise unhealthy products,” the organization said.