Urgent Action on Diabetes: CAPPA Demands State of Emergency on World Diabetes Day
On World Diabetes Day 2025, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) and the Diabetes Association of Nigeria (DAN) are urging the Nigerian federal government to declare a national emergency on diabetes care. Citing alarming death rates and prevalence, they advocate for a higher tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and other robust healthy food policies to combat the growing public health crisis and alleviate the financial burden on patients. This call emphasizes the critical need for policy intervention and health system strengthening to address Nigeria's significant diabetes burden.
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