CAPPA warns of potential dangers in Coca-Cola’s $1b investment

By Juliet Umeh

The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, CAPPA, a non-governmental organization, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reconsider his administration’s close ties with corporations that disregard Nigerian laws and jeopardize public health.

This warning comes after Coca-Cola recently met with the president, reaffirming its $1 billion investment commitment to Nigeria over five years.

CAPPA’s concern is timely, especially considering President Tinubu’s recent address at the 79th UN General Assembly, where he emphasized the importance of multilateralism, debt forgiveness, and fighting corruption.

The organization is cautioning the president to ensure that his administration’s relationships with corporations align with these values.

According to a statement released by the non-governmental organisation, NGO, made available to Vanguard, it said the warning is coming on the heels of Coca-Cola’s recent visit to the president where the corporation re-announced a $1 billion investment pledge to Nigeria over a period of five years.

According to CAPPA, “Coca-Cola’s latest investment promise was nothing more than a recycled, unfulfilled commitment first made three years ago to the Muhammadu Buhari administration.’

CAPPA accused the bottling company of “attempting to exploit the rhetoric of investment to whitewash its dirty image marked by multiple dishonest trade practices, as has been repeatedly exposed, including most recently, by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC).”

The statement reads: “It is a matter of grave concern that the news is once again awash with Coca-Cola’s promise of a $1 billion investment in Nigeria. This is the second time in three years that the company has made this hollow pledge to different ruling governments, and yet it failed to deliver the first time around.

“Despite the company’s failure to honour its previous commitment, the government of the day has not only embraced the company’s latest pledge with undue fanfare but also quickly risen to defend its dubious track record of dangling promises that never materialise with evidence.

“While the government may claim that Coca-Cola couldn’t fulfil its earlier commitment due to a “challenging business environment,” the disturbing truth remains that, beyond its woeful record of unmet financial pledges, Coca-Cola’s presence in Nigeria has more than any other thing been defined by its persistent onslaught against public health and regulatory infractions than anything else.

“In 2017, a Lagos High Court issued a damning judgement against the company, revealing that its products were unfit for consumption as they contain high levels of sunset yellow and benzoic acid which, according to European and American food and drug agencies, can form the carcinogen benzene when combined with ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). 

“On this ground, the court mandated the company to place warning labels on its beverages, advising consumers against combining their intake with Vitamin C. But to this day, the corporation has refused to comply with this directive.

“This contempt and disregard for public health and judicial authority should ordinarily disqualify the company from receiving any form of state endorsement, let alone at the highest level of government.

“Moreover, barely two months ago, in July 2024, the FCCPC found Coca-Cola guilty of deceptive trade practices as usual. The Commission’s investigation which began in 2019, revealed that the company had on multiple occasions and counts engaged in false and harmful marketing practices that could mislead customers.

“For instance, the company had not only on many occasions provided false information to the FCCPC in violation of the Commission’s rules, but had also deceived consumers by dishonestly selling its “Less Sugar” variant as identical to the original Coca-Cola product.

“Yet, despite being found guilty of violating multiple consumer protection laws and advised to apply remedies and clear product labelling, Coca-Cola has failed to take meaningful steps to correct its actions, further demonstrating its penchant for undermining regulatory interventions.

“To be clear, this promise-fail-promise tactic of Coca-Cola, including its operational character of disregard for national regulations is not accidental. It is straight out of the big food industry playbook to interfere, undermine, and dilute pro-public health and consumer protection policies.

“Sadly, by endorsing Coca-Cola’s shady investment only months after the FCCPC indicted it, the Nigerian government is not only setting itself up as an image launderer for a dirty corporation but also unbelievably, undermining and embarrassing its own regulatory authority,’’ the CAPPA statement said.

According to CAPPA’s Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, “the question the Nigerian government must ask itself in light of all this is what truly it stands to gain by endorsing a multinational corporation with a dark history of non-compliance, and whose products are even actively contributing to a public health crisis in the country?

“Sugar-sweetened beverages, like many of Coca-Cola’s products under such category, are well known and documented contributors to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease and other associated health conditions that are already straining Nigeria’s healthcare system and economy.

“As such, while the company’s promises of an economic investment may sound appealing, the potential gains pale in comparison to the long-term public health costs and injury that the consumption of its products inflicts on the Nigerian population as with elsewhere across the world’’ Akinbode added.

The CAPPA statement also warned that the government’s cosy relationship with the beverage corporation could jeopardise the smooth implementation and enforcement of Nigeria’s active Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) tax.

The SSB tax was signed into law as part of Nigeria’s Finance Act in 2021, effectively imposing an excise duty of N10 per litre on all non-alcoholic and sweetened beverages in the country in order to lessen their demand and consumption and tackle the rising spate of NCDs in the country and their heavy burden on individuals and the economy.

In recent times, public health advocates have asked the Nigerian government to review the tax rate upwards to cater for inflationary pressures and in line with global best practices, to cause a minimum of 20 per cent increase in retail prices of SSBs, so as to discourage consumption.

“The SSB tax is a vital public health policy that must not be undermined by the sneaky tactics of Coca-Cola to infiltrate public health discussions and weaken enforcement of pro-public health laws through its calculated friendships with state authorities.

“The Nigerian state must reconsider its fawning over Coca-Cola, as its snug relationship with the corporation while simultaneously enforcing a pro-public health tax, sends mixed signals.

“This kind of messaging is not only dangerous but also threatens the effectiveness of the SSB tax, which is crucial for saving lives.

“Even more so, the government’s fraternisation with the company despite its disrespect for national rules of engagement only serves to embolden the company’s exploitative practices in Nigeria without fear of accountability.

“President Tinubu’s administration has an obligation to protect Nigerians, not act as a cheerleader for companies with a proven history of unethical behaviour.

“We, therefore, call on the Nigerian government to prioritise the interests of Nigerians by shunning questionable associations with corporate lawbreakers and adversaries of public health. We urge the state to defend public health without scruples and consider genuine ethical investments that rank the well-being of Nigerians over empty promises and profit-driven deception.”

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