Background:
In Nigeria, smoking rates are higher among ethnic groups in Northern Nigeria. Lagos state is the commercial nerve center of the most populous nation in Africa, and draws people of different ethnicities seeking economic gain. There is a large group of Hausa people in Lagos state. Some studies have cited higher smoking rates among ethnic minorities, however cessation efforts targeted at ethnic minorities in Nigeria are suboptimal. This study aimed at assessing cessation practices and preferences among smokers in the Hausa community of Idi-Araba in Mushin local government, Lagos State.

Methods:
The was a descriptive cross-sectional community-based study that used a snowball sampling technique to select 157 current cigarette smokers interviewed using pretested Modified version of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey tool.

Results:
All the respondents were of the Hausa ethnic group and practiced Islam, 24.1% had either no formal education or Islamic education only and 38% could not read and write. More than half (52.9%) had ever tried quitting and were ready to quit, primarily for health and economic reasons. Knowledge of the harmful effects of tobacco use was poor and significantly associated with intention to quit. (p< 0.05). Only 6.8% had ever received professional help with quitting. Many were more willing to receive and pay for help from a traditional healer rather than a trained health professional.

Conclusions:
Ethnically tailored smoking cessation services are needed for this group of smokers. Training of traditional healers to identify and offer ethnically tailored smoking cessation services may be considered.