SMOKING AMONG GIRLS IN AFRICA ESCALATES

By ANNIE ZULU

TOBACCO use among girls in Africa has increased, African Capacity Building Foundation (ACDF) Executive Secretary Professor Emmanuel Nnadozie has disclosed.

Prof. Nnadozie said there was no longer difference in smoking rates between girls and boys on the continent.

He noted that previously, the prevelance of tobacco use among girls was lower than the rate of boys.

He attributed this to the increase of purchasing power and aggressive tobacco industry marketing in Africa among others.

Prof. Nnadozie said this during the official opening ceremony of the 1st African Conference on Tobacco Control and Development (ACTCD) yesterday. 

The three-day conference which is been conducted virtually and attended by over 400 stakeholders across the continent, is aimed at disseminating recent information on tobacco.

"Recent studies have shown that the prevelance rate among girls 4.6% to 36.6 % has become as high as for the boys 7.8% to 36%," Prof. Nnadozie said.

Speaking at the same occasion, World Health Organisation (WHO) Afro Region Senior Project Officer Dr. William Maina stressed the need for urgent action towards tobacco control in Africa.

Dr. Maina said the aggressive approach which was given to COVID-19 prevention should also be applied towards tobacco control.

He also called for unity among African countries in implementing the WHO global Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). 

"We need to review our strategy and change how we do things. We need to come together and work together," he said.

And Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma of the African Center for Disease Control urged tobacco control researchers, advocates and planners to focus less on the problems and more on the solutions.

Meanwhile, Conference Chairperson and Director of the Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa (CTCA), Professor William Bazeyo described the conference as the realisation of a dream seeded when the CTCA was established 10 years ago. 

"By charting a clear research agenda for the African tobacco control community, the CTCA had created conditions for this unifying event", Prof. Bazeyo said.