Tob. Control published online 8 Apr 2009; doi:10.1136/tc.2009.030601
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Author: Ellis Owusu-Dabo, Sarah Lewis, Ann Mcneill, Stacey Anderson, John Britton and Anna Gilmore
Intro: FINDINGS
British American Tobacco, and latterly the International Tobacco Company and its successor the Meridian Tobacco Company, have been manufacturing cigarettes in Ghana since 1954.
After an initial sales boom in the two decades after independence in 1957, the sustained further increases in consumption typical of the tobacco epidemic in most countries did not occur. Possible key reasons include the taking of tobacco companies into state ownership and a lack of foreign exchange to fund tobacco leaf importation in the 1970s, both of which may have inhibited growth at a key stage of development, and the introduction of an advertising ban in 1982. BAT ceased manufacturing cigarettes in Ghana in 2006.
CONCLUSION
The tobacco industry has been active in Ghana for over 50 years but with variable success. The combination of an early advertising ban and periods of unfavourable economic conditions which may have restricted industry growth are likely to have contributed to the sustained low levels of tobacco consumption in Ghana to date. . . .
What this paper adds
This paper provides the first account of tobacco industry activity in Ghana.
It indicates that the current low prevalence and tobacco consumption in the country are likely to be attributable at least in part to:
• Constraints on industry growth arising from foreign exchange shortages and the taking of the industry into majority government/public ownership at a time of rapidly increasing demand in the mid 1970s
• The imposition of a comprehensive advertising ban soon afterwards, in 1982 It also demonstrates that progression of the tobacco epidemic in developing countries is not inevitable, and that early restrictions on industry growth and advertising may be important steps in prevention.
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