Developing long-term strategies to reduce excess salt consumption in Nigeria

The disease burden attributable to excess sodium consumption in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, is large, with 10% of all deaths from cardiovascular disease due to excess dietary sodium.1–3 While a very wide range of estimates of mean daily dietary sodium intake has been reported among Nigerian adults (dietary sodium range = 2.3–10 g/day; dietary salt range = 5.8–25 g/day),1,4,5 the Nigerian government estimated that mean salt intake in 2018 was 10 g/day, which is two-fold higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) daily recommendation.6 To reduce population-level excess dietary sodium consumption in Nigeria, the country published its National Multi-Sectoral Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases in 2019, which includes policies based on the WHO SHAKE package. The national sodium reduction programme in Nigeria targets four key policies: (i) mandatory limits of sodium in packaged foods, (ii)...