British American Tobacco-Ghana, one of Ghana's biggest cigarette manufacturing companies, on Tuesday called on the government to initiate a legislation that would ban children below the age of 18 from purchasing tobacco products, especially cigarette.

This is to protect minors from cigarette-related diseases such as lung cancer, respiratory and heart diseases and help the youth make informed choices about life when they are matured to do so.

Mr Jimmy Idun-Ogde, Managing Director of BAT, told a ceremony to launch the "Youth Smoking Prevention Campaign" in Accra that the choice to smoke had always been considered as exclusively for adults. "No responsible person wants minors to smoke and neither do tobacco companies," he said.

"The youth smoking prevention campaign that we are launching in Ghana is one of 130 such programmes that we are involved in, in over 70 countries."

Mr Idun-Ogde said the problem of youth smoking was a societal one that needed to be analysed from a broader context of adolescent behaviour. "It involves peer pressure, parental influence and the desire to fit in."

Mr Idun-Ogde added: "We all therefore have a stake in addressing this important societal issue."

He said one of the most effective ways to stop children from smoking was to prevent them from having access to cigarettes, adding, "Enforcement is made easier if laws exist on proof of age."

Mr Idun-Ogde said an education campaign aimed at helping teenagers to quit smoking as well as help younger children to avoid the temptation to begin would soon begin. The initial focus is on retail access prevention to be followed by the education campaign.

Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs, who launched the "Youth Smoking Prevention Campaign", said smoking kills but the government could not ban the product outright.

"What we can do is to prevent our youth from indulging in smoking.... As a youth there were several opportunities that I missed because I started smoking at a very early age," Mr Obetsebi- Lamptey said and added that he has, however, quit smoking.

He said the government could not put a total ban on the product because it would lead to the creation of an "underworld" operation, which would not be in the interest of the nation.

"We will, however, do all we can to make the producers responsible by enforcing education on the product."