By Nelson Manneh
In December 2016, the Gambia government adopted an Act called the Tobacco Control Act which entered into force on December 17, 2018. Provisions on smoking in public places and tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship came into effect immediately.
The Tobacco Control Act is designed to completely discourage all forms of consumption of Tobacco in The Gambia.
Despite the eloquent design of the Act, many described it as a novel as it suffers little or no enforcement.
The Act after its adoption has never been properly enforced by the country’s law enforcement agencies.
The only provision of the Act that is implemented has to do with its duty. The government continues to increase the duty yearly, but this does not stop its importation and rampant consumption.
The cheapest price of one cigarette stick is equivalent to the cost of half-bread. Regardless of its high cost, the average Gambian who is addicted to smoking consumes more than five sticks of cigarettes a day.
The Tobacco Control Regulations, 2019 contain implementing details related to health warning contents, sales restrictions, disclosure requirements, smoke-free places, and enforcement.
The Regulations entered into force on October 1, 2019. According to the Notification of Commencement, picture health warnings meeting the requirements under the Tobacco Control Act, 2016, and the Tobacco Control Regulations, 2019 were originally going to be required beginning January 6, 2021. However, the implementation date was subsequently delayed to September 6, 2021
Statistics show that in the Gambia, 16.7% of the population smokes cigarettes, which equates to 367,400 smokers. These cigarette smokers spend about 6.6 billion Dalasis or more annually on cigarettes.
World Health Organization’s Findings on Tobacco
The World Health Organization estimated that every year more than eight million people die from tobacco use. It further states that tobacco use is a major risk factor for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, over 20 different types or subtypes of cancer, and many other debilitating health conditions.
“Tobacco can also be deadly for non-smokers. Second-hand smoke exposure has also been implicated in adverse health outcomes, causing 1.2 million deaths annually. Nearly half of all children breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke and 65 000 children die each year due to illnesses related to second-hand smoke. Smoking while pregnant can lead to several life-long health conditions for babies,” WHO stated.
WHO further indicates that Heated tobacco products (HTPs) contain tobacco and expose users to toxic emissions, many of which cause cancer and are harmful to health. Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and electronic non-nicotine delivery systems (ENNDS), commonly known as e-cigarettes, do not contain tobacco and may or may not contain nicotine, but are harmful to health and undoubtedly unsafe. However, it is too early to provide a clear answer on the long-term impact of HTPs and/or e-cigarette use.
According to research, Tobacco causes preventable illness and death in the world. Smoking is the top five priorities of risk factors that cause premature deaths, as stated in The Global Burden of Disease study. Globally, WHO cites the ‘tobacco epidemic’ as ‘one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing about eight million people a year.
The Tobacco Control Act 2026
The law (Tobacco Control Act) prohibits the sale of tobacco products through vending machines and the Internet, in schools, stadiums, healthcare facilities, cultural facilities, public places of worship, and other specified locations. The law also prohibits the sale of smokeless tobacco, single cigarettes, small packets of cigarettes, and tobacco in unit packages weighing less than 100 grams. The sale of tobacco products is prohibited to persons under the age of 18.
The law further grants the authority to regulate the contents of cigarettes; however, no subsequent regulations have been issued. The law requires that manufacturers and importers disclose to government authorities information on the contents and emissions of their products. Smoking is prohibited in all indoor workplaces, public places, and on all means of public transport.
It also states that no person shall smoke within 100 meters of any openings, structures, doors, windows, outlets inlets, or other air intake mechanisms. a waiting area, queue, place of service or consumption of food and drinks, immovable facilities in unenclosed public or workplaces, and areas designated as non-smoking by the person responsible for such premises. It is against the law for retailers to sell or give tobacco products to persons under the age of 18, and to permit the selling of tobacco products by persons under the age of 18.
The law states that any person offering for sale or selling any tobacco product shall ensure that such products are stored at the point of sale in a way that – (a) any part of any tobacco product shall not be visible to the public from outside the sellers’ premises or inside the sellers’ premises in any area where the public has access; (b) any tobacco product shall be stored at the point of sale under an opaque front counter, or above or behind the front counter, or in an opaque cabinet, and (c) any part of any tobacco product shall only be temporarily visible at the point of sale during the sales transaction.
Non-Enforcement of Regulations
With all these good laws, people continue to violate the regulations as there is very limited enforcement. The laws, according to health experts, were designed to eliminate the consumption of tobacco in the Gambia, with others arguing that if the laws are fully implemented; the smoking of cigarettes will be drastically minimized.
Mr Lamin Cham, a business tycoon who has a warehouse in Banjul, said the only provision of the Tobacco Control Act that is implemented is the article that has to do with the labeling of tobacco products as well as the payment of its taxes.
“The government continues to increase tobacco tax, but with that alone, the consumption of tobacco products will never be eradicated or minimized. As a businessman, if taxes are increased, we also increase the prices of our goods as well. Tax is one of the major elements that determine the local prices of goods in the Gambia,” he said.
“It is a mockery for a law to be enacted by the government and people continue to violate it. It is not in the interest of the government to eliminate smoking of all kinds. The government is only interested in the tax they collect from importers and other businessmen and women who are engaged in the selling of tobacco products,” Cham, a businessman in Banjul told Foroyaa.
An anonymous senior police officer, who once worked with a task force assigned to implement the Tobacco Control Act, said they had visited some shops within the Greater Banjul Area and arrested some businessmen who were not complying with the tobacco control laws.
“After conducting the arrest, these individuals were handed over to the authorities for further investigation, but up to date, I don’t know how their case ended. I don’t know whether they were even charged or subsequently arraigned before a court of law,” he said.
The anonymous police officer said the only solution is that the government should implement the laws without mercy.
“It might be difficult for the government to ban the importation of tobacco, but if the laws are fully implemented, it will minimize its consumption,” he added.
Mrs Maimuna Sillah said she has been selling tobacco locally known as “Taba Jambo” for more than almost fifteen years in Banjul, but she is not aware of the existence of the Tobacco Control Act.
“The kind of tobacco I sell is called ‘Taba Jambo’, it comes in the form of leaves, I spread it out for it to get dry and after that, I pound it and put it in small plastic bags and sell it,” she narrated.
The law states that those who sell tobacco products should not expose it publicly, but this is an irony in Serrekunda and other communities within the Kanifing Municipality visited by this reporter.
Cigarettes and other tobacco products could be seen spread out publicly like any other commodity. Salespeople spread tobacco products openly for consumers to see and buy.
Muhammed Bah, a vendor at the Serrekunda market, said tobacco is one of the products that have a lot of demand.
“There is no day that I come here to sell and I don’t sell one packet of cigarette. No matter how bad sales go in a day, I sell more than ten packets of cigarettes,” he said.
Bah said the only way the government can eliminate the consumption of tobacco is to ban its importation, stressing that as long as the product is available no matter how expensive it is, people will buy it.
“The cheapest cigarette is now costing five dalasis but people are still buying it and smoking it anyhow, anywhere,” he said.
“I am addicted to smoking cigarettes and the only thing that can stop me from smoking is when the government bans the importation of tobacco products, but as far as it is available I will buy and smoke it,” one Matarr Jassey told Foroyaa.
He said the government of the Gambia is only good at drafting and enacting laws, but they never have any implementation plan.
“There are many other laws that the government through the law enforcement agencies are not enforcing. One of them is the Anti-Littering Act, this act would have helped us to keep our environment clean but the government is not implementing it,” he said.
