A ban by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on alcoholic beverages packaged in small sachets and pet bottles came into force last week. The agency said it had since December 2018 struck a deal with stakeholders to stop production of the beverages in such packages and gave manufacturers a five-year window to phase them out. It was after the grace period lapsed that enforcement of the ban kicked in on February 1.

Following the deadline expiration, operatives of NAFDAC have been moving in on alcoholic beverage-producing factories not in compliance to seal them off. NAFDAC Director-General, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, said the ban was not a sudden thing, but rather the outcome of an agreement by a multilateral committee that the policy be implemented in phases. Under the pact, production was to be cut by 50 percent by 2020, while outright ban was to take effect on January 31, this year. Given that decision, the regulatory agency had not issued licence renewal beyond last month to any manufacturer.

At a parley with journalists in Abuja, the NAFDAC helmswoman said the agency resorted to eliminating alcoholic beverages in sachets because of the negative effects on public health, especially underage children. According to her, the beverages were being packaged in pocket-friendly sizes and at affordable costs, which made them accessible to children, among others, with susceptibility to addiction. She recalled that the decision to eliminate the packages stemmed from the recommendation in December 2018 of a panel involving the Federal Ministry of Health and NAFDAC on one hand, and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), industry stakeholders represented by the Association of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employers (AFBTE), as well as Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria (DIBAN), on the other hand.

Adeyeye outlined sundry hazards to public health constituted by the packaging being eliminated. “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,” she said. According to the NAFDAC boss, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has established that children who drink alcohol “are more likely to use drugs, get bad grades, suffer injury or death, engage in risky sexual activity, make bad decisions and have health problems. The WHO also stated that harmful consumption of alcohol is linked to more than 200 health conditions, including infectious diseases (tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS) and non-communicable conditions (liver cirrhosis and different types of cancer). It is also associated with social problems such as alcohol addiction and gender-based violence.” She added: “To curb the menace of abuse of alcohol, the WHO recommended some actions and strategies to policy makers that have shown to be effective and cost-effective. These include regulating the marketing of alcoholic beverages (in particular to younger people) and regulating and restricting the availability of alcohol.”

We are in total agreement with the regulatory czarina that sachet-pack alcoholic beverages have been hugely detrimental to public health in the country; hence, the clampdown is a welcome step that portends great benefit to society. And this isn’t just in the area of health. The heightened crime wave presently being experienced has been found to involve more of youthful persons, with their emboldening most likely stemming from easily accessed stimulating drinks and drugs that society would be better off getting out of reach. Safety on our roads will also be positively impacted because drunk driving by commercial drivers is largely attributable to easy access to sachet alcohol at motor parks.

Organised labour was reported raising opposition to the NAFDAC ban and shutdown of production lines of companies manufacturing alcoholic drinks in sachets and small bottles below 200ml. Protesting workers, led by labour leaders to NAFDAC office in Lagos, complained that no fewer than 45,000 jobs and billions of Naira in investments were at the risk of going down the drain. But it is pertinent to note that these producers had a five-year window to readapt their production lines, which they didn’t avail themselves of. Labour should encourage such re-adaptation now rather than fight the laudable policy of NAFDAC. Adeyeye was bang on point when she said the future of Nigeria superseded other considerations in the enforcement of the policy, and that saving Nigerian children and protecting the health of the larger society was paramount to the agency. We can’t agree more.

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