Tobacco producing and Distribution giant, British America Tobacco Company has been practically forced to close its production plant in Benin Republic.

“The Tobacco firm is backing down because of a raise in tax” says Dr. Julien TOESSI, a representative of the minister of Health in an important stakeholders meeting organized by Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative, ATCRI in Cotonou.

TOESSI says the ministry of Health now has a platform to ask BAT to begin to enforce international regulation on Tobacco Control “I know it is a big battle between the choice of Health and Commerce….i am not saying it is going to be easy to tackle the Tobacco firms because of their huge resources, but what we can do is to begin to make them obey international treaties like the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, FCTC. It is on this platform that we will engage them” he said.

Considering if the exit of BAT will affect the economy of Benin Republic, TOESSI says it matters less “We are dealing with health and economic issues, that is the challenge, a very big question is do we choose economy against health? And another is that how much really does the Tobacco investment beneficial to our economy?”

There are other schools of thought that believe BAT factory closure is mere camouflage. “ This is one way to evade tax… if they want to close shop, they should leave entirely…” says Faton Augustin, the coordinator of Initiative pour l’education et le Controle du Tabagisme, IECT, an organization working on Tobacco Control in Benin Republic.

But the Tobacco firms claim that they have rights of operation if they are allowed into a country “I know the dangers of smoking but I smoke once a while when I feel stressed” says Kuma Schulles, a smoker who believe there has to be more focus on counseling people who wants to quit smoking.

“We cannot tolerate the Tobacco Companies invasion in Africa without enforcing available regulations and existing regulations. They must stop advertizing and any sort of promotion, they must add pictorial warning on the packs of the cigarette because this are normal regulations that they must be made to comply with in Africa” Mr. Adeola Akinremi, Africa representative on the Framework Convention, FCA, told a meeting of stakeholders who were gathered to draft a document that will reflect the true situation of Tobacco Control in Benin Republic.