Chief Economist at the Ministry of Finance, Emmanuel Fordjour, says Ghana’s efforts to control and reduce tobacco use in the country are being hampered by social media, which is used by celebrities to promote tobacco use.
According to him, Ghana has been an active member in the development of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) since becoming the 39th country to sign the convention on June 20, 2003.
Addressing this year’s annual coordination workshop of tobacco control programme in Accra, Mr. Fordjour said in compliance with its responsibilities, Ghana became one of the first countries in Africa to prohibit tobacco advertising by issuing a policy directive to that effect in 1982.
He indicated that the government, in 2012, also passed the Public Health Act (851) to take concrete steps to reduce tobacco use in the country, which law has provisions that ban smoking in public places, tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship.
“These bold steps were later followed with the passing of the Tobacco Control Regulations (L.I. 2247), which entered into force on January 4, 2017.
“Despite these sustained promulgation of legal tools in combating the harmful effects of tobacco use, I must point out that our efforts as a country have recently come under threat from the use of social media to promote tobacco use,” he revealed.
He explained, “For instance, these days, we often find a number of so-called ‘celebrities’ who showcase the use of tobacco products such as cigars and shishas on social media. To such people, it is simply fashionable to display a modern trend. Whereas some of the people involved do so out of sheer ignorance of the harmful effects of tobacco, others also indulge in the practice for monetary gains.”
“I have no doubt that the social media impact on the youth in relation to tobacco use is not peculiar to Ghana alone. We will find a similar trend in your countries. It is therefore important that all of us come together to devise strategies to stay one step ahead of this negative trend,” Mr. Fordjour intimated.
Director of Programmes at the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), Prof. Sylvain Boko, said the workshop was taking place against the backdrop of the ongoing tobacco control programme, which requires adequate institutional capacity of implementing agencies to ensure sustainability of efforts and achieve impactful results.
By Ernest Kofi Adu