Flavoured Smoke and False Promises: How Tobacco Firms Are Targeting Nigerian Women and Girls

A new study has raised alarm over what experts describe as a growing and calculated push by tobacco companies to capture a new market in Nigeria: women and adolescent girls.

Presented recently by Gatefield, an Abuja-based public policy firm, the study reveals that women across five African countries are increasingly exposed to tobacco marketing through flavoured products, social media campaigns and messaging that frames vaping and e-cigarettes as “safer” alternatives to traditional cigarettes.

According to the findings, 24 per cent of surveyed women reported having tried tobacco products, with women aged 18 to 24 identified as the most aggressively targeted group by industry marketing strategies. The report highlights how flavouring, often sweet, fruity or mint-based, is being used to mask the risks of nicotine addiction while making products more appealing to younger consumers.

Co-principal investigator and Public Health Lead at Gatefield, Omei Bongos, warned that the industry is leaning heavily on “harm-reduction narratives” to reposition itself. Tobacco firms, she said, are increasingly promoting vapes and e-cigarettes as cleaner, safer lifestyle products rather than addictive nicotine delivery systems.

Experts at the presentation stressed that this shift is not accidental but strategic, designed to expand consumption among groups previously less likely to smoke. Women, particularly young women, are now central to that expansion.

“Tobacco affects women disproportionately compared to men,” Bongos said, urging women journalists to use their platforms to amplify awareness and challenge misleading industry narratives. “Women journalists, as mothers and role models, are strategically positioned to discourage children and young people from taking up tobacco use.”

At a related workshop on gender mainstreaming in tobacco control held in Gombe, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) called for stronger media engagement in exposing how tobacco harms women and children. Executive Director Comrade Ibrahim Musa-Rafsanjani said women journalists have a “crucial role in shaping public attitudes and influencing policy on tobacco control.”

He also warned that Nigeria’s tobacco taxation policy remains too weak to effectively discourage consumption, noting that current rates fall short of benchmarks set by ECOWAS and the World Health Organisation.

Experts at the event further cautioned that tobacco companies are rebranding their products with themes of “freedom, sophistication, health and modern lifestyles,” making them more attractive to young women while downplaying the long-term health risks.

Nontheless, there are growing concerns that as traditional smoking declines in some populations, the tobacco industry is aggressively shifting its marketing strategies to secure a new generation of users, particularly in markets with regulatory gaps like Nigeria.