A new report has revealed how multinational food corporations are aggressively marketing ultra-processed foods to Nigerians -particularly children and young adults – jeopardizing public health and costing the healthcare system billions annually.
The report, titled “Junk on Our Plates: Exposing Deceptive Marketing of Unhealthy Foods Across Seven States in Nigeria,” was launched on Wednesday in Lagos by Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), a pan-African non-governmental organisation. It lays bare a “systematic, profit-driven assault on public health,” according to the group.
CAPPA disclosed that food corporations are using an arsenal of strategies including aggressive advertising, cultural manipulation, celebrity endorsements, and misleading labels — to promote high-sugar, high-sodium, ultra-processed products. These tactics, the group claimed, are primarily targeted at vulnerable groups: children, youth, low-income communities, and cultural identities.
“The food and beverage industry continues to exploit loopholes,” warned CAPPA’s Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi. “They use covert marketing, target children, and take advantage of weak enforcement of existing regulations to flood the market with unhealthy products — tactics reminiscent of the deadly strategies long used by the tobacco industry.”
CAPPA’s findings indicate that these profit-driven practices are not only endangering Nigerians’ health but are also contributing to the erosion of traditional, nutritious, and indigenous food options.
“The slow disappearance of healthy foods from our plates is no coincidence,” Oluwafemi added.
The organisation acknowledged the Nigerian government’s efforts to regulate harmful food products, including the Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB) Tax introduced in 2021 and recent regulations by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) on transfats and packaged food labelling. In March 2025, the government also launched a National Guideline for Sodium Reduction.
“These are good steps,” Oluwafemi noted, “but we need more. We need clear and readable front-of-pack warning labels on processed foods. We need limits on salt and sugar content. And we need public awareness campaigns that are state-led and free from corporate influence.”
CAPPA recommended significantly increasing the SSB tax from N10 to N130 per litre to reduce sugar consumption and mitigate health risks. It also urged for tighter restrictions on the marketing of unhealthy foods, particularly to children, and a national sodium reduction programme.
Zikora Ibeh, CAPPA’s Assistant Executive Director, highlighted the changing dietary environment in Nigeria. “We are consuming items that are harmful. Nobody is saying these corporations should be shut down. We are saying that government needs to step up enforcement so that people can understand clearly what is bad for eating.”
She further called for investment in local food systems. “We must prioritise health over profit. That means public investment in agroecological farming and reversing trade policies that flood our markets with unhealthy foreign products.”
Humphrey Ukeaja, CAPPA’s Industry Monitoring Officer, condemned the false narratives and misinformation spread by food companies. “Strategic pricing, cultural exploitation, and advertising are pushing Nigerians toward calorie-dense, nutrient-poor diets. NCDs now account for 30% of all deaths annually in the country. This is a public health emergency.”
Speaking on the urgency of protecting children, Opeyemi Ibitoye, CAPPA’s Programme Officer for the SSB Tax Campaign, said: “If there’s a restriction on marketing these products around schools, it will reduce how children request them. This is key to promoting public health.”
The report was made possible through a field survey conducted by youth advocates under CAPPA’s Healthy Food Policy Youth Vanguard (HFPYV) and Digital Media Volunteers (DMV), with technical support from the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI).