Oghenovo Egodo-Michael
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has been urged by the Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria to reverse the ban placed on the production of alcohol in sachets and pet bottles below 200 millimetres.
The Executive Secretary of the body, John Ichue, who made the appeal in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, said the ban has gravely affected the industry and led to a massive loss on the part of stakeholders.
PUNCH Healthwise reported that NAFDAC on February 1, 2024, commenced the enforcement of the ban on alcoholic beverages in sachets, PET, and glass bottles of 200ml and below.
The Director-General of the agency, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, during a press briefing in Abuja, noted that as of January 31, 2024, no such beverages were registered with the NAFDAC.ing sir
“The agency commenced nationwide enforcement actions on February 1, 2024, to enforce the implementation of the new policy,” she added.
Reps to probe ban on sachet alcoholic beverages by NAFDAC – Healthwise (punchng.com)
Speaking further about the negative effect of the ban, Ichue said, “The ban is honestly not the solution to the problem. In 2018, we signed an MOU under duress and the MOU gave us the authorisation to do a campaign on responsible drinking and discourage underage alcohol consumption. For DBAN members, our investment is over 12 trillion by indigenous manufacturers and this ban will lead over 75 per cent of home-grown manufacturers to shut down.
“Meanwhile, the sachet alcohol is our cash cow as when we were producing bottled alcohol, we were finding it hard to adjust to the economic situation, so most of our members decided to scale down to sachet and we have invested trillions of naira in that direction. To us, it will be a disservice to Nigerian investors because this ban is motivated by multinationals in our segment of business.”
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