Nigeria, like other Low-and-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) is facing an increasing burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) with nearly one-third of deaths in the country attributed to NCDs. It is imperative to deploy effective tools to tackle NCDs, including health taxes by exploring the political and socio-economic factors that influence their design and implementation. As part of the evidence-based approach to understanding the political and socio-economic factors that influence the design and implementation of health tax policies in Nigeria, DGI Consult with funding from the WHO Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (AHPSR) conducted a health policy analysis for health taxes in Nigeria, a multidimensional research programme aimed at providing evidence for health policy analysis for health taxes in low-and-middle income countries using a recognized framework.

The health policy analysis for health taxes was conducted using a mixed research methods through extensive desk review and key informant interviews (KIIs) and policy dialogue with stakeholders to generate evidence for health tax policy reforms towards prevention and control of NCDs in Nigeria, and the political economy of health tax adoption, design and implementation.

The DGI Consult organized the 1-day multi-stakeholders policy dialogue in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) to present the preliminary findings of the health taxes policy analysis and elicit additional input and insights from stakeholders. The 1-day hybrid policy dialogue themed “Forging Consensus Towards Accelerated Health Tax Policy Design and Implementation” held on Tuesday 14^th of May 2024 featured diverse stakeholders at the federal level. These include representatives from the FMoH, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), National Assembly Senate Committee on Health, Nigeria UHC Forum, Health Sector Reform Coalition (HSRC), Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria, Nigeria Action for Sugar Reduction (NASR); Nigerian Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA), donors, implementing partners, and media amongst others.

The dialogue highlighted the importance of forging a robust and well-informed coalition across sectors to bolster the implementation of  effective health tax policies in Nigeria; the importance of tackling misleading industry-driven narratives aimed at weakening health tax implementation and the need to have a dynamic database to track consumption trends and gauge the efficacy of tax rates, facilitating necessary policy adjustments. During the panel session, a narrative-changing course of action for the effective design & implementation of existing policies for health taxes and the roles of different actors and institutions were highlighted.

The key insights and recommendations from the policy dialogue were incorporated into the report of the health policy analysis for health taxes. The findings and recommendations from the health taxes policy analysis is currently shaping the redesign of the Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) bill in Nigeria. DGI Consult will work closely with the National Assembly and other relevant stakeholders to ensure the evidence generated from the policy analysis is translated into policy action.