BAT’s Promotion of Nicotine Pouches in LMICs
This page was last edited on at
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BAT’s Promotion of Nicotine Pouches in LMICs, Tobacco Tactics, updated 14 May 2026, accessed 18 May 2026.
BAT has identified an opportunity to market nicotine pouches in countries where electronic devices are less affordable, or less available due to regulatory restrictions.1 It has also referred to the suitability of markets where there is a “pre-existing ritual of oral product consumption”.23 Most smokeless tobacco users live in LMICs.4
Background
BAT began marketing nicotine pouches in Kenya in 2019, and Pakistan in 2020. Since then it has reported increasing sales in Pakistan, and fluctuating sales in Kenya.567 It has also launched the product in Mexico.89 In 2025, BAT identified South Africa as one of its key growth markets for nicotine pouches.7
BAT has previously test marketed Velo in Bangladesh and Indonesia.2 However in 2026, Bangladesh was one of the LMIC markets which BAT identified as “currently inaccessible” for any of its “new category” products, along with Turkey, India, Vietnam and Brazil.10 It also appears that Indonesia is no longer a target market.1112
PMI and JTI also market nicotine pouches in LMICs.1314 PMI has begun manufacturing pouches in Pakistan,1516 and received approval for a factory in Bangladesh.1718
This page focuses on BAT’s promotion of Velo, looking first in detail at the case of Kenya.
Kenya: A timeline of interference
Below is a summary of BAT’s activities in Kenya from 2019 to 2026. For more detail and background, including BAT’s history of interference in tobacco control in Kenya, specifically health warnings on products, see the investigative report by the Consumer Information Network (CIN), the Institute for Legislative Affairs (ILA), and the Kenya Tobacco Control and Health Promotion Alliance (KETCA).19
Launches Lyft
In 2019, BAT told the president of Kenya that it wished to build a nicotine pouch factory but it was not widely known.19 The same year, BAT announced its intention to sell nicotine pouches in Kenya, and it launched Lyft in the country in December 2019.202122 Lyft was initially registered as a pharmaceutical product with the Kenya Poisons Board.1923 BAT Kenya (BATK) managing director, Beverley Spencer-Obatoyinbo said in February 2020 that “Given the high incidence of oral stimulant use among smokers, we believe that this new product category will provide a viable alternative to smoking”, although she presented no evidence at the time to support this statement.24 However, according to advocates in Kenya, the pouches were promoted as “cool and aspirational” consumer products, including by social media influencers.19
Promises a new factory
In February 2020, BAT announced publicly that it was planning to build a nicotine pouch factory in Nairobi, and that Kenya would become a regional export hub for the product.24 At the time it was importing Lyft from Hungary.19
In response to concerns about the potential impact on tobacco farmers, BATK’s head of legal and external affairs said that the company was “using proceeds from the tobacco portfolio to invest in the new categories. When the time comes, we will help them (farmers) transition to sustainable crops,” although this was “not a change that can happen overnight”.25 Spencer-Obatyoinbo confirmed that BAT switching to “non-combustibles” was “not an immediate thing”.25
In April 2020, the Ministry of Industrialization urged that BAT be granted a licence for its new factory, without having nicotine pouches categorized as tobacco products, and therefore not requiring health warnings on the packaging.19
Lyft’s designation as a pharmaceutical product was challenged by local advocates in early 2020.23 Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe wrote to the poisons board, arguing that the product had been wrongly designated, and stated that it was being distributed via vending machines in contravention of the law.2326
Lobbies for tax breaks
In September 2020, BAT was reported to be lobbying the Kenyan Revenue Authority (KRA) for locally produced pouches not to be subject to the same taxes as cigarettes, citing its large investment and potential exports.27 The Chief Executive of the International Institute for Legislative Affairs argued that this would be a “huge setback for tobacco control interventions in Kenya”.28
Investigative media platform The Examination reported that in October 2020 the Pharmacy and Poisons Board ordered that nicotine pouches should only be sold in pharmacies and there should be no advertising. 29 In the same month the Ministry of Health pronounced that nicotine pouches did not meet the requirements for registration as a pharmaceutical product so they were deregistered and thus effectively banned.30 However, there was a reported lack of enforcement and the product was found to still be on sale in alcohol stores and supermarkets in December 2020.192630
Suspends sales
In early 2021, the Kenyan government said that it was intending to classify nicotine pouches as tobacco products under the Tobacco Control Act, making them subject to similar marketing restrictions as cigarettes and other tobacco products.26 BAT was given 21 days to comply with packaging and labelling requirements.19
In February, BAT told investors that it had “temporarily suspended sales due to local regulatory challenges and continue to engage with the local authorities.”2 The same month BAT was lobbying the Kenyan government to stop or delay implementation of health warnings, and for a new regulatory framework for nicotine pouches, including lower taxes and a longer ‘sell through’ period for existing products.19
In March, BAT told the Kenyan media that it was planning to spend Kenyan Sh1 billion (US $10 million) on marketing Lyft once the product was approved for sale.31 This included plans to set up distribution networks across the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).31
The Examination reported that in September BAT wrote to the Ministry of Health and threatened to pull investment from the nicotine pouch factory. It stated it would only open the factory if cans were labelled with small health warnings and with no mention of poisons other than nicotine. BAT was given dispensation for smaller health warnings until July 2023 29
Markets as Velo
In July 2022, BAT’s nicotine pouch was back on the market in Kenya, as Velo.3233 In its annual report, BAT stated it had “reintroduced Velo to a limited retail universe with positive early momentum, as we focus on driving guided trial.”34 In 2023, BAT reported that its “accelerated national roll-out” had led to a “near fourfold increase in adult consumer numbers”.5 BAT also continued to lobby for favourable taxation for its nicotine pouches – stating it would only start local production if taxation was favourable.333536
Letters between BAT and the Kenyan Ministry of Health in 2023, revealed that BAT had lobbied for an extension of its dispensation allowing reduced size of warning labels.1929According to The Examination, BAT did not withdraw cans with the smaller warning labels after the exemption ended, and shipments of pouches were impounded by the government at a major airport in October and November 2023.29
Threatens factory closure
In May 2024 the Ministry of Health and the Tobacco Control board began a public consultation on the implementation of graphic health warnings. Advocates in Kenya noted an apparently coordinated third party media campaign, ahead of this initiative.19 In June 2024, BAT said that it would close its factory and sell the machinery, owing to “regulatory uncertainty” and by August BAT had withdrawn nicotine pouches from sale in Kenya.19373839
Threats to close factories are a well-known industry tactic used to exert pressure on governments, and influence regulation in favour of tobacco companies. However, it appears that although BAT used the factory as a threat, it never actually existed. BAT Kenya’s Managing Director, Crispin Achola, told a local media outlet in 2025 that BAT had never started using its pouch manufacturing machinery in Kenya.39 He said the equipment lay dormant for five years and was sold at the end of 2024. The Examination reported that the equipment was placed within the existing cigarette factory rather than a new factory.3729
Relaunches Velo
In 2025, the Kenyan government announced that nicotine pouches would be covered under the same regulations as other tobacco products, with excise tax stamps, graphic health warnings on packaging, sales restricted to adults, restrictions on flavours, and a ban on advertising, marketing and sponsorship, including via social media. The Global Institute for Novel Nicotine (GINN), a nicotine industry organisation, welcomed this development, saying that “Kenya’s experience may serve as a regulatory model for other African countries”.40
In March 2026, BAT announced that Velo was being relaunched in Kenya. BAT stated it was importing its nicotine pouches from Pakistan but it might consider local production again in future.41
Pakistan
Velo was launched by BAT in Pakistan in December 2019, with a campaign run by Ogilvy Pakistan who stated Velo was “positioned towards affluent adult consumers”.424344
A Freedom of Information Request submitted by Bath TCRG revealed that UK High Commission staff in Pakistan had attended a “social event” for Velo in February 2020. The FOI response stated that they “were invited by the event coordinator and did not meet any Velo representatives at the event.”45
- British diplomats have previously been associated with lobbying by BAT in Pakistan, and other LMICs. See the page on UK Diplomats Lobbying on Behalf of BAT
BAT says it invested in facilities to manufacture nicotine pouches in Jhelum in 2020 and since 2024 has been exporting to Japan, Peru and France.46 It said it was “particularly proud of Velo’s performance in Pakistan”,47 stating in its 2022 annual report that Pakistan was its third largest market for nicotine pouches, “enabled by powerful, consumer-centric digital activations.34 In 2023, it said that Velo in Pakistan had the “highest active consumer base”,5 and reported further growth in 2024,6 and 2025.7
As in other countries, public health advocates have raised concerns that the marketing of nicotine pouches, including Velo, as fashionable, desirable consumer products, could lead to increased youth addiction in Pakistan.484950 In the early 2020s Velo was the most widely available nicotine pouch in Pakistan and nicotine pouches were often sold near schools, placed at children’s eye level, and displayed near candy.5152 The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that BAT provided free samples of Velo without asking for proof of age, and ran a promotion campaign on TikTok.53
South Africa
By 2022, BAT had launched Velo in South Africa.54 Nicotine pouches are not currently regulated as tobacco products.5556 This means that they can be sold without health warnings and to those under the age of 18.55In 2023, BAT Kenya was reported by local media to be importing most of its pouches from South Africa.33
Tobacco Tactics Resources
TCRG Research
- S. Peeters, A. Gilmore, Understanding the emergence of the tobacco industry’s use of the term tobacco harm reduction in order to inform public health policy, Tobacco Control, 2015,24(2):182-189
For a comprehensive list of all TCRG publications, including TCRG research that evaluates the impact of public health policy, go to the Bath TCRG’s list of publications.