World Food Day: CAPPA Warns Against Corporate Capture of Nigeria’s Food System

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to commemorate World Food Day 2025, the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has raised concern over the growing dominance of ultra-processed foods in the country’s food system, warning that weak regulation and unchecked corporate influence are endangering public health.

In a statement signed by CAPPA’s Media and Communication Officer, Robert Egbe, and released in Lagos on Thursday, the group said the government must urgently strengthen laws that protect citizens from deceptive marketing and unhealthy food products.

The statement quoted Akinbode Oluwafemi, CAPPA’s Executive Director, as saying that multinational food and beverage companies are expanding their reach through aggressive advertising and sponsorships that target children, young people, and low-income communities.

“Corporations are flooding our markets with ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks, using deceptive marketing to present them as healthy, modern, and aspirational. The result is a silent epidemic of diet-related diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and kidney failure, particularly among Nigeria’s youth,” Oluwafemi said.

He noted that these corporate strategies are pushing Nigeria away from its traditional diets and into a “nutrition crisis” that mirrors the country’s growing burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).

This year’s World Food Day, celebrated under the theme “Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future,” calls for global cooperation in ensuring access to nutritious and affordable food. 

CAPPA said this goal cannot be achieved in Nigeria unless the government confronts corporate interference and enforces policies that put public health before profit.

Citing CAPPA’s recent report, “Junk On Our Plates,” the organisation highlighted how beverage and snack manufacturers exploit social media, music events, and even school programmes to promote products high in sugar, salt, and saturated fat. 

The report also found that these marketing practices are especially concentrated in poorer neighbourhoods where access to nutritious alternatives is limited.

“What we are witnessing is a deliberate corporate takeover of our food environment,” Oluwafemi said. “They are not just selling unhealthy products, they are shaping how people think about food, culture, and health.”

To reverse the trend, CAPPA recommended a range of evidence-based policy measures including mandatory Front-of-Pack Labelling (FOPL), effective taxation on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), sodium reduction targets, and marketing restrictions for unhealthy foods, particularly to children.

The group also urged the government to increase tobacco taxes and regulate the promotion of smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes, which it said are becoming a public health concern among young Nigerians.

Oluwafemi described Nigeria’s low life expectancy, averaging in the mid-50s, as “a national emergency that reflects deep systemic failures,” adding that a strong food policy framework could improve health outcomes and social equity.

“World Food Day should remind our leaders that food is not just a matter of production but of justice. We must ensure that what fills our plates promotes life, not disease”, he said.