Curbing the Menace of Illicit Trade and Tobacco Smuggling

Abimbola Akosile examines the tobacco industry in Nigeria, with focus on illicit trade and illegal smuggling of products and government’s attempts to check and regulate a lucrative sector. Someone once told this reporter a simple fact about Nigeria. He said, albeit in a cynical manner, that if one wants any item to flourish in Nigeria’s huge markets, just wait for the government to ban that item.

To back his argument, he pointed at rice, frozen poultry products, and used tyres, which although under the import prohibition list, still daily flow into Nigeria through both monitored and porous borders, generating billions in illicit trade.

Visits to the right markets only serve to buttress the cynic’s position, which only goes to show that although regulation and checks may be in place, no product can actually remain effectively banned in Nigeria. But that is a topic for another day.