NAFDAC announces immediate ban on alcoholic beverages in small sachets

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has announced an immediate ban on alcoholic beverages produced in sachets less than 200ml.

The food control body said the five-year window given to the manufacturers of the products to stop producing the drinks in sachets and pet bottles which began in 2018 elapsed on January 31, 2024.

She said enforcement of the ban commenced on February 1, 2024.

In an address to the media on Monday, February 5, regarding the development in Abuja, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the director-general of NAFDAC, stated that the production ban was not an unexpected move, but rather the outcome of a multilateral committee that decided that the ban would be implemented in phases, with a 50% reduction in production by 2020 and an outright ban on January 31, 2024.

In light of that ruling, the DG stated that NAFDAC did not grant any product manufacturer renewal licenses past January 2024.

The agency added that it decided to make the move due to the negative effects on underage children.

She said: “This decision was based on the recommendation of a high-powered committee of the Federal Ministry of Health and NAFDAC on one hand, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), and the Industry represented by the Association of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employers (AFBTE), Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria (DIBAN), in December 2018.

“As a commitment to the decision reached at the end of this Committee meeting, producers of alcohol in sachets and small volume agreed to reduce the production by 5 percent with effect from 31st January 2022 while ensuring the product is completely phased out in the country by 31st January 2024”.

Adeyeye stressed that: “The people who are mostly at risk of the negative effect of consumption of the banned pack sizes of alcoholic beverages are the under-aged and commercial vehicle drivers and riders.”