We support raising the total tax on cigarettes towards WHO’s 75% benchmark, from 45.93% of retail price in 2024 (WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2025), and accession to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products. This page sets out what Ethiopian law already covers and the evidence behind both positions.
What Ethiopian law covers
Proclamation 1112/2019 brought tobacco products under the Food and Medicine Administration Proclamation. Under it, Ethiopia reported to WHO in 2025 (opens in a new tab) that it has 100% smoke-free public places, colour graphic health warnings covering more than 70% of the front and back of packs, a ban on direct and indirect advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and a minimum sale age of 21. Waterpipe tobacco, electronic nicotine delivery systems, heated tobacco products and nicotine pouches are all reported as banned. Smokeless tobacco remains legally available and was used by 1.7% of adults in 2024.
Smoke-free coverage is the piece with a documented before and after. In 2018, five of the eight venue categories WHO tracks permitted smoking, several of them through separate enclosed smoking rooms. By the 2020 reporting round all eight — health facilities, schools, universities, government offices, indoor offices, restaurants, bars and public transport — were complete, either side of the 2019 proclamation.
What WHO’s 2024 MPOWER scoring records
On WHO’s 2024 MPOWER scoring Ethiopia is recorded at 5 on protection from tobacco smoke, help to quit, pack health warnings, mass-media campaigns and advertising bans, 4 on monitoring and 3 on taxation.
Adult current tobacco use was 4.6% in 2024 (opens in a new tab) — 8.8% of men and 0.5% of women (WHO Global Health Observatory, indicator TOBACCO_MPOWER_M1_PREVALENCE). The Global Youth Tobacco Survey measured current smoking among 13–15-year-olds at 10.3% in 2023 — 10.9% among boys and 8.0% among girls. WHO’s 2025 report on the global tobacco epidemic names young people and low-income groups as the groups most responsive to price, which is the link between the adolescent figure and the tax position below.
Taxation
Total tax on the most-sold cigarette brand was 45.93% of retail price in 2024: specific excise 16.67%, ad valorem excise 16.22%, value added tax 13.04%, import duties and other taxes nil. WHO’s benchmark is 75%, met by 41 countries in the 2025 report on the global tobacco epidemic (opens in a new tab). The split between specific and ad valorem excise is recorded here because it is part of what a tax decision sets.
An annual retail price series for the most-sold brand, published alongside the tax rates, would make the effect of any tax decision observable — whether a rise reaches the shelf, and how cigarette prices move against incomes.
Illicit trade
The Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products entered into force on 25 September 2018 and has 73 Parties and 54 signatories. Ethiopia appears on neither list (opens in a new tab), although it ratified the Framework Convention on 25 March 2014 and reported on implementation on 29 May 2025. On WHO’s 2025 report on the global tobacco epidemic, one in every ten cigarettes consumed worldwide is illicit, and illicit trade can be tackled while taxes are being raised. The Protocol figures of 73 Parties and 54 signatories were recorded from the depositary list in August 2026.
The 2024 national adult tobacco survey
Ethiopia ran a full national adult tobacco survey in 2024 and presented the results in Addis Ababa on 3 April 2025. Five prevalence figures from it reach the public through WHO’s Global Health Observatory. We support publication of the survey report and deposit of the microdata in the WHO NCD Microdata Repository (opens in a new tab), where researchers can reach it; that would also make available the survey’s measurements of second-hand smoke exposure at home and at work, quit attempts, advice to quit from a health worker, and what Ethiopians believe about tobacco.
Where the sources disagree
WHO’s modelled series has Ethiopian female age-standardised smoking prevalence drifting up from 0.7% in 2000 to 1.0% in 2024 (WHO Global Health Observatory, indicator M_Est_smk_curr_std). Against that, a figure attributed to the Director General of the Ethiopian Food and Drug Authority has female current tobacco use falling from 2.1% in 2016 to 0.5% in 2024, and reaches the record through an Ethiopian Public Health Institute news item rather than a report of its own. The two describe different quantities on different bases — age-standardised smoking against crude use of any tobacco product. Both are recorded here and neither is adopted.
The two adult prevalence figures for 2024 differ for the same reason. The surveyed value, TOBACCO_MPOWER_M1_PREVALENCE, is 4.6%; WHO’s modelled estimate for the same year and age range, M_Est_tob_curr, is 4.5%. Both are published and neither is adopted.
What we support
Raising total tax on cigarettes towards the 75% benchmark; publication of an annual retail price series for the most-sold brand; accession to the Illicit Trade Protocol; and publication of the 2024 survey report with its data deposited where researchers can reach it.
Related pages
Tobacco control in Ethiopia — cigarette tax at 45.9% of retail price in 2024, against a 75% benchmark is the full brief, and it carries WHO’s citation for both figures. Tobacco sets out what tobacco does and what the Ethiopian exposure figures are. Tobacco control research and the CEASE project cover our research on compliance with and enforcement of anti-smoking policy.