The government has been urged to take decisive steps to introduce taxes on unhealthy foods, as part of efforts to curb the rising burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in the country.

The call was made in Kumasi during a day-long training workshop for 20 selected media practitioners in the Ashanti Region, focused on NCD awareness and advocacy.

Dr Charles Apprey, a Nutritional Biochemist and Lecturer at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), stressed the need for the government to implement fiscal and regulatory measures, including taxes on unhealthy foods, front-of-pack warning labels, and market restrictions on harmful products.

The training was organised by the Ghana Public Health Association with support from the Coalition of Actors for Public Health Action (CAPHA), to strengthen media advocacy for healthier food policies.

Dr Apprey noted that NCDs continued to rise globally and locally, largely driven by unhealthy diets, excessive salt and sugar intake, tobacco use, harmful alcohol consumption, and physical inactivity.

He observed that several African countries had introduced sugar taxes to discourage the consumption of unhealthy foods, suggesting that Ghana could adopt similar measures.

He said global estimates showed that NCDs accounted for about 74 per cent of deaths worldwide, claiming more than 41 million lives annually and of these, approximately 17.9 million deaths were linked to cardiovascular diseases, 9.3 million to cancers, 4.1 million to chronic respiratory diseases, and two million to diabetes.

Dr Apprey questioned the delay in implementing taxation and market control mechanisms on unhealthy foods and stressed the need for deliberate national action, to reduce consumption of harmful products.

He added that the World Health Organisation’s estimates showed that over 1,000 deaths in Ghana in 2016 were attributable to NCDs, highlighting the urgency for targeted interventions.

He further called for strict regulation of advertising unhealthy food products, particularly those targeting vulnerable groups.

Mr James McKeown Amoah, the Project Lead at the Ghana Public Health Association, also emphasised that NCDs such as hypertension, cancer, and diabetes remained leading causes of death, reinforcing the need for government action, especially in regulating advertisements for sugary foods associated with adverse health outcomes.

Participants at the training pledged to use their respective media platforms to increase public awareness on NCDs and promote advocacy for healthier dietary choices.