The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has raised concerns over renewed calls for additional taxes on sugar-sweetened non-alcoholic beverages (SSBs) in Nigeria.
It warned that such a move would be detrimental to the manufacturing sector and the broader economy.
While acknowledging the need to address rising public health challenges such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, the centre argued that a sugar-specific tax is misguided, economically risky, and weakly supported by empirical evidence.
According to CPPE, the push for sugar taxation in Nigeria is largely driven by externally developed policy templates, particularly from global health institutions, which do not adequately reflect local economic realities.
The centre noted that global best practice does not support sugar taxation as a sustainable or standalone solution to non-communicable diseases, especially in economies like Nigeria that are grappling with high inflation, weak purchasing power, fragile industrial recovery, and widespread poverty.
CPPE stressed that Nigeria’s economy remains in a delicate recovery phase, warning that introducing additional sugar-specific taxes could reverse recent industrial gains, weaken employment, and undermine ongoing manufacturing-friendly fiscal reforms.
“Public health objectives and economic growth are not mutually exclusive.
“What Nigeria needs is balanced, holistic, and development-conscious policymaking, not additional fiscal pressure on one of the most critical segments of the manufacturing sector,” the centre stated.
It emphasised that non-alcoholic beverage manufacturers are already among the most heavily taxed businesses in the country, facing multiple fiscal obligations, including a 30 per cent Company Income Tax, 7.5 per cent Value-Added Tax, ₦10 per litre excise duty, a 4 per cent National Development Levy, a 4 per cent FOB levy on imported inputs, import duties of 5–15 per cent on raw materials, a 0.5 per cent ECOWAS levy, as well as various property, state and local government taxes.
(The Sun)
