Between six million and 11.2 million Nigerian adults are living with diabetes, with treatment costing patients as much as N150,000 or more monthly, the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology (NIFST) has said.
NIFST President, Dr. Bola Osinowo, disclosed this at a stakeholders’ conference on Low- and No-Calorie Sweeteners (LNCS) in Nigeria: The Science and Safety, held in Lagos.
Osinowo said the growing diabetes burden was imposing a heavy financial strain on Nigerian families and the healthcare system, particularly amid a critical shortage of specialists to manage the disease.
He said diabetes treatment, including insulin, monitoring and clinical care, costs an average patient between N20,000 and over N150,000 every month.
According to him, the situation is further compounded by the fact that Nigeria has fewer than 200 practising physician endocrinologists, specialists responsible for managing diabetes and other endocrine disorders.
Osinowo said the development made it imperative for Nigeria to strengthen prevention and evidence-based approaches to tackling diet-related non-communicable diseases, particularly diabetes and obesity.
He said the growing use of low- and no-calorie sweeteners by food and beverage manufacturers as alternatives to sugar must therefore be supported by sound scientific evidence, effective regulation and consumer education.
The conference, organised by the NIFST Academy in collaboration with the International Sweeteners Association (ISA), Brussels, brought together representatives of NAFDAC, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, government ministries, food manufacturers, academics, nutritionists, consumer groups and other stakeholders.
The stakeholders called for a national dietary database to track Nigerians’ consumption of sweeteners and establish reliable data on long-term exposure.
They said Nigeria currently lacks coordinated national data, despite regional studies showing significant consumption of sweetener-containing products.
The communique issued at the end of the conference cited a study in Calabar Municipality which found that up to 58.1 per cent of young adults frequently consumed aspartame-sweetened carbonated drinks.
The stakeholders consequently recommended longitudinal dietary surveys across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones to establish national consumption and exposure patterns.
They also identified a gap between awareness and understanding of sweeteners, noting that while awareness among some surveyed groups was as high as 73.5 per cent, between 67 and 70.8 per cent had poor scientific knowledge of their safety and health effects.
The conference further called for harmonisation of Nigeria’s food-additive regulations with international Codex Alimentarius standards and increased research into the stability of sweetener-based products under Nigeria’s hot and humid conditions.
The stakeholders said the measures would help Nigeria reduce sugar consumption and support food-industry innovation while ensuring that public-health policies and consumer protection remain grounded in scientific evidence.