NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 31 — Africa is producing more tobacco even as global leaf production declines, while the continent’s bill for imported cigarettes has more than doubled, exposing what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls a growing health, trade and development problem.

📻 Breaking It Down

New WHO analysis shows global tobacco-leaf production fell 18.8 per cent between 2012 and 2024, but African production increased 8.6 per cent over the same period.

Africa produced more than 639,000 tonnes of tobacco leaf in 2024, accounting for about 11 per cent of global output.

At the same time, the continent’s cigarette import bill more than doubled from $833 million in 2012 to $1.77 billion in 2024, highlighting a growing gap between Africa’s role as a producer of raw tobacco and its dependence on imported manufactured cigarettes.

📌 What You Need to Know

“This is not just a tobacco-control issue. It is a health, trade, development and environmental issue,” said Dr Vinayak Prasad, Head of the Tobacco Free Initiative at WHO.

“Tobacco farming exposes workers and families to serious health risks, damages the environment and can trap farmers in cycles of debt. At the same time, African economies are spending more on imported cigarettes that fuel addiction, disease and premature death.”

WHO said tobacco production is concentrated in a handful of countries, with Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique and Uganda accounting for most of the continent’s output.

East Africa alone accounts for nearly 90 per cent of African tobacco-leaf production.

The increase in production comes despite a broader decline in tobacco use globally.

The number of adult tobacco users worldwide fell from 1.379 billion in 2000 to 1.202 billion in 2024.

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya