As the world observes World Diabetes Day on Friday, November 14, 2025, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has joined forces with the Diabetes Association of Nigeria (DAN) in an urgent appeal to the federal government. They are calling for the declaration of a national emergency on diabetes care and a significant increase in the tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), alongside other vital healthy food policies.

In a statement released on Friday, CAPPA highlighted a distressing disclosure by DAN's president, revealing that an estimated 30,000 Nigerians die annually from diabetes, and a staggering 11.4 million are currently grappling with the debilitating disease, according to a recent media report. CAPPA noted that this figure is considerably higher than the International Diabetes Federation's (IDF) estimate, which puts Nigeria's diabetes prevalence at roughly 3.0 percent, affecting approximately 2.99 million adults.

The non-governmental organization expressed profound concern over the escalating average monthly cost of diabetes management, reported to be between N100,000 and N120,000. CAPPA warned that such high costs render effective management impossible for most patients, effectively becoming a death sentence for many Nigerians already struggling with the nation's poor economy. CAPPA underscored this grim reality as