Nigerian youths face new nicotine wave as 573 emerging products exploit legal gaps

More than 500 new-generation nicotine products are circulating across Nigeria’s retail and digital markets, exploiting regulatory loopholes and increasing youth exposure to addiction risks, according to a new surveillance report released on Thursday.

The study, titled: ‘New Smoke Trap: Emerging Nicotine & Tobacco Products, Youth Exposure and Policy Gaps in Nigeria,’ conducted between October and December 2025 by Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), documented 781 nicotine and tobacco-related products in Lagos, Enugu and the Federal Capital Territory. Of these, 573 were classified as new and emerging nicotine and tobacco products (NENTPs), including e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches and heated tobacco devices.

Researchers said the rapid expansion reflects a shift in how nicotine is marketed and consumed in Africa’s most populous country, where more than 70 percent of the population is under 30.

Akinbode Oluwafemi, CAPPA’s executive director, at the report’s launch in Lagos, said,
“What we are seeing is not substitution but expansion. These products are being normalised among young people who have never smoked. They are entry points, not exit ramps.”

E-cigarettes, commonly known as vapes, accounted for 522 documented variants, making them the dominant category. Devices ranged from disposable units to refillable pods and modular systems, often packaged in bright, gadget-like designs resembling lip gloss tubes or USB drives.

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Nicotine strengths escalated over time among some users interviewed, with puff counts printed on devices ranging from 600 to 50,000. Prices varied widely, from lower-cost entry points to premium models retailing for up to 60,000 naira, the report said.

Nicotine pouches, which are smokeless oral sachets placed between the gum and lip, were found primarily on digital marketplaces including Instagram, Jiji and Jumia. Researchers documented 38 variants, with strengths ranging from 3 milligrams to as high as 100 milligrams per pouch.

Some brands did not display nicotine concentrations on packaging while advertising high strengths online, the report noted.

Heated tobacco products appeared in smaller numbers, with 13 items documented, mostly marketed online and priced between 65,000 and 70,000 naira, suggesting early-stage positioning for affluent consumers.

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Regulatory strain

Nigeria’s National Tobacco Control Act of 2015 was designed primarily around combustible tobacco products.

CAPPA and contributing academics argue that synthetic nicotine and tobacco-free devices fall into grey areas not explicitly covered by current definitions, allowing advertising, pricing and sales practices that would be restricted for cigarettes.

“Our framework was constructed to deal with tobacco leaf products. When confronted with products engineered to sit at the margins of those definitions, enforcement gaps emerge,” Oluwafemi said.

Lekan Ayo-Yusuf, the founding director of the Africa Centre for Tobacco Industry Monitoring and Policy Research, at the University of Pretoria, said global experience shows that industry innovation often outpaces regulation.

“Effective jurisdictions regulate nicotine, not just tobacco leaf,” he said, urging Nigerian authorities to adopt product-neutral definitions that cover all nicotine-delivery systems.

Public health advocates also challenged narratives suggesting that alternative nicotine products serve primarily as cessation tools. The report argues that while some countries cite Sweden’s low smoking rate as linked to alternative products, declines there were driven largely by decades of taxation, advertising bans and smoke-free policies.

Nigeria’s smoking prevalence remains below 10 percent, according to advocates at the event, but researchers warned that aggressive marketing in digital youth spaces could entrench a new generation of nicotine dependence if oversight remains fragmented.

Policy recommendations

The report calls for extending excise taxes to all nicotine-delivery systems, strengthening age-verification requirements for online sales, harmonising oversight among health, trade and consumer protection agencies, and closing advertising loopholes that allow youth-oriented branding and influencer marketing.

It also recommends sustained public education campaigns to clarify that nicotine, whether synthetic or tobacco-derived, remains addictive and carries risks to adolescent brain development.

“Nigeria is confronting these products early. The lesson globally is simple: anticipatory regulation protects populations. Delayed regulation protects markets,” Ayo-Yusuf said.

The findings add to growing debate across Africa over how regulators should respond to a fast-evolving nicotine market increasingly shaped by digital commerce and youth-focused branding.

Zikora Ibeh, assistant executive director, CAPPA, said the team deliberately moved beyond anecdotal observations to map what she described as the architecture of availability, like how pricing, placement, flavouring, packaging and digital promotion interact to normalise nicotine consumption. “These products are not appearing randomly. They are positioned beside snacks, cosmetics and electronics, embedded into everyday consumer culture in ways that disguise their pharmacological function,” she said.

Ibeh added that Nigeria’s demographic profile heightens the urgency of regulatory reform. “With more than 70 percent of the population under 30, exposure through social media ecosystems and lifestyle marketing creates a structural vulnerability. If regulatory responses remain slow or fragmented, the market will mature faster than policy, and we risk institutionalising a new generation of nicotine dependence,” she added.