In recent times the tobacco industry bill has been in discourse in the National Assembly in a chat with Princewill Ekwujuru, Bassem Bekdache, Corporate & Regulatory Affairs (CORA)Director , W/Africa, of BATN spoke on the bill, BATN’s developmental projects and other sundry issues in the industry. Excerpt.

History/overview of tobacco market

British American Tobacco of Nigeria (BATN) established its presence in Nigeria over 100 years ago and has been here, since then in one form or the other, as part of the former Nigerian Tobacco Company (NTC) and now as a fully owned subsidiary of the BATcompany.

Before our entrance into the Nigerian market as BAT, the tobacco market in Nigeria was 80 percent of illicit product and 20 percent legal product. We collaborate with appropriate government agencies to fight against illicit trade in the country.

Today, we have been able to reduce illicit trade to at least about 12 to 15 percent illicit product and that alone is a huge contribution to the government and to the Nigerian market. Our products are manufactured in line with approved quality standards and we market our products responsibly to adults who have made an informed choice to consume our products.

We also manufacture for export in Nigeria, we currently export to about 12 to 14 countries depending on the point in time. So right now, our factories in Ibadan and Zaria have become the export hub for our business in West Africa.

A key aspect of our business is our corporate responsibility framework which dictates how we work, making sure we are responsible at all times, especially recognising what stakeholders think and want, and also making sure that we are in full compliance with local laws and internal standards where local laws are not in existence.

An example of this, is when we work with others to try and stop youth access to our products. We carry out campaigns in partnership with our retailers at the retail point. There is currently no law that prevents retailers from selling to under aged persons, so in line with our Corporate Social Responsibility framework we make sure that we do all we can to deter under age access to these products. There are challenges, but we are working hard at it with our partners.

About BATNF

The Foundation is a company limited by guarantee and it operates as an independent charitable organisation. BATN Foundation focuses on four main areas which are:  Sustainable Agricultural Development, Sustainable Provision of Portable Water, Sustainable Environmental Protection and Vocational skills development. We basically support national and global objectives in areas of development for our different communities.

BATNF’s scorecard

Since inception, we have completed over 108 projects in the 36 states in Nigeria including the Federal Capital Territory.  We aim to positively impact the development of the communities where we work. The projects we work on are fed to us through stakeholder dialogue, through communities, groups or non profit organisations’ requests. The feedback we have received from the beneficiaries and through the impact assessment we carried out is positive.

What informs decision for the Foundation to embark on a project (s) within the country as the country is divided into different geo-political zones. Also, with regards to the handover of any CSR project, is there any fixed timeline as regards BATNF and the host community?

What we look after is the ability of the communities to take full charge of the projects on completion.  We keep working together up to a stage whereby we feel that the communities can take over the project. Therefore, the timing varies, some projects take up to 3 years and others are considerably shorter.

In terms of choosing location, we receive requests from different communities and as is normally done with most corporate social investments, we align ourselves to national and state objectives especially where they fit into our focus areas. We don’t want to say that we are in one part of the country or the other.

It is not how it works; it is based on need by the host community. So we work across board and are therefore present in every State.  Every community has a need and our intervention is based on meeting this need if it falls within our focus areas.

These requests are sent to the Foundation’s technical committee which looks at it on the basis of focus, sustainability, impact and resources.  So, very good planning is put into consideration before any project is done by the Foundation.

Regulatory issues/enactment

There is a belief that BAT is against regulating the industry, this is not true. We are very supportive of regulation, by this, we have always said that we mean a balanced regulation that is evidence based and will achieve the health advocates objectives, whilst maintaining the ability of the legal industry to operate as opposed to encouraging illicit trade.

The bill in its present form contains ambiguities and inconsistencies. This will cause confusion and will make it unenforecable.  we are not against the bill, we are for a balanced regulation that does not contain any form of ambiguities, will not cause confusion , will be enforceable and will not encourage illicit trade.