The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Moji Adeyeye said the ban on the sale and consumption of sachet alcoholic beverages in the country is still in force.
Adeyeye said this on Wednesday at a press briefing held in
Lagos and monitored by our correspondent via Zoom.
She said, “The ban on sachet alcohol is a ministerial
directive and the ban still remains until the ministers respond. The meeting
last week Thursday is a continuation of the discussion.
“The outcome of the meeting is that the ministers should
write a memo to the Speaker (of Reps) and the House (of Reps), and the
Representative of the Speaker, Prof Jake Dan-Azumi then said we should continue
the discussion after the recess of the House members in July. So, the
discussion continues.”
The deputy spokesman for the House of Representatives,
Philip Agbese, last Friday disclosed the House and NAFDAC resolved to lift the
ban on the sale and consumption of sachet alcoholic beverages in the country.
Agbese said the resolution to lift the ban temporarily was
arrived at after a meeting between the House Committee and NAFDAC officials,
noted.
He said the lifting of the ban would end when the economy
fully recovers from its current strain.
On February 1, 2024, NAFDAC commenced the enforcement of the
ban on the importation, manufacture, distribution, sale and use of alcoholic
beverages in sachets, PET, and glass bottles of 200ml and below.
The NAFDAC DG said the decision was based on the
recommendation of a high-powered committee of the Federal Ministry of Health,
NAFDAC, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, and the
industry represented by the Association of Food, Beverages and Tobacco
Employers, Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria, in December 2018.
However, the move to enforce the ban has generated repeated
protests by distillers and labour unions, who said the ban would cost 500,000
workers their jobs, and ruin N800bn investments.
Meanwhile, medical experts warned that lifting the ban on
alcoholic beverages will lead to acute health complications, increased road
traffic accidents, increased risk of abuse of alcohol, liver problems,
heart-related problems, and cancers, among others.