Abuja, Nigeria—The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday passed for second reading a crucial bill seeking to restructure the existing excise duty on non-alcoholic, carbonated, and sweetened beverages (SSBs), with the primary goal of dedicating the generated revenue directly to funding public health initiatives.

The bill, sponsored by Senator Ipalibo Harry Banigo (PDP – Rivers West), a medical doctor and former Deputy Governor of Rivers State, is an amendment to the Customs and Excise Tariffs (Consolidation) Act.

Shifting Focus from Revenue to Health Investment

The legislation is not seeking to introduce a new tax but rather to strategically redirect a portion of the current revenue derived from the SSB tax, which was initially introduced at ₦10 per litre via the Finance Act 2021.

• The Problem: Senator Banigo argued that while the existing tax was marketed as a dual fiscal-health intervention, the revenue is currently remitted to the Federation Account with no guarantee that it is spent on health purposes.

• The Proposal: The amendment proposes to earmark a percentage of the SSB excise duty collections to create a dedicated fund specifically for preventive health programmes, community-level healthcare infrastructure, wellness education, and early screening for lifestyle-related diseases across the country.

• The Rationale: Banigo highlighted that excessive sugar consumption is a major driver of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, which account for over 30% of annual deaths in Nigeria.

“This amendment is not merely fiscal in nature; it is a public health investment strategy that aligns taxation policy with our national health priorities,” Senator Banigo told her colleagues. “It seeks to correct the conspicuous absence of the health sector from frameworks that already earmark levies for education, defence, and technology.”

Next Steps for the Bill

Following a unanimous vote by the senators in support of the bill’s general principles, the Senate committed the proposed legislation to the Committees on Finance, Commerce, and Health for further legislative work.

The committees are expected to conduct public hearings and scrutinize the bill's provisions, including determining the precise percentage of the excise duty to be dedicated to the public health fund, before presenting a final report to the Senate for Third Reading and final passage.

The successful restructuring of this tax could lead to a stable, domestic funding source for Nigeria's ailing public health sector.