INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF MEDICINE SECTION: GLOBAL HEALTH & HEALTH POLICY ISSN: 1755-7682 International Medical Society http://imedicalsociety.org 1 2017 Vol. 10 No. 34 doi: 10.3823/2304 © Under License of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License This article is available at: www.intarchmed.com and www.medbrary.com Abstract Background: In 2012, a total of 9,398,809 deaths from all cau- ses occurred in the WHO African Region; out of which 2,788,381 (29.67%) were due to non-communicable diseases (NCD). The ob- jective of this study was to estimate future gross domestic product (GDP) losses associated with NCD deaths in the African Region for use to advocate for increased investments into prevention and ma- nagement of NCDs. Methods: Human capital approach is used to estimate non-health GDP losses associated with NCD deaths. Future non-health GDP los- ses were discounted at 3%. The analysis was done for three income groups of countries and six age groups. One-way sensitivity analysis at 5% and 10% discount rates was undertaken to assess the impact on expected non-health GDP loss estimates. Results: The 2,788,381 NCD deaths that occurred in the African Region in 2012 are estimated to have resulted in a total discounted GDP loss of Int$ 61,302,450,005. Out of that total loss, 20.36% was borne by those aged 0-4 years; 12.76% by 5-14 years; 16.64% by 15- 29 years; 44.93% by 30-59 years; 2.99% by 60-69 years; and 2.33% by those aged 70 years and above. Thus, those aged between 15 and 59 years bore 61.57% of the GDP losses. Approximately 47.4%, 33.1% and 19.5% of the total loss was borne by high and upper middle-, lower middle- and low-income countries respectively. The average total non-health GDP loss was Int$ 21,985 per NCD death. The average non-health GDP lost per NCD death was Int$ 54,534 for Group 1, Int$ 21,492 for Group 2 and Int$ 9,096 for Group 3. Indirect Cost of Non-Communicable Diseases Deaths in the World Health Organization African Region ORIGINAL Kirigia Joses Muthuri 1 , Mwabu M Germano 2 , M’Imunya James Machoki 3 , Muthuri Rosenabi Deborah Karimi 4 , Nkanata Lenity Honesty Kainyu 5 , Gitonga Eric Bundi 5 1 School of Health Sciences, Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST), Meru, Kenya. 2 School of Economics, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya. 3 University of Nairobi Institute for Tropical and Infectious Diseases (UNITID), Nairobi, Kenya 4 Department of Psychology, United States International University in Africa (USIU-Africa), Nairobi, Kenya. 5 Alpha Action Foundation, Nairobi, Kenya. Contact information: Kirigia Joses Muthuri. Address: School of Health Sciences, Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST), P.O Box 972-60200, Meru, Kenya.  kirigiajoses@gmail.com