The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has insisted that the ban on the production of alcoholic beverages in sachets, small volume PET and glass bottles below 200mls was a collective decision meant to safeguard the health of Nigerians.
The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, made this known in a statement on Thursday.
According to her, the ban was a collective recommendation of a committee, and listed representatives in the committee as the Federal Ministry of Health, NAFDAC, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employers, and Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria.
Adeyeye explained that the decision to enforce the ban was not hasty, as it had been a five-year phase-out plan.
“It is also important to clarify that the implementation of the ban on alcohol in sachets and small-volume PET and glass bottles was not hasty.
“It is in line with the five-year phase-out plan of the affected presentations of alcoholic beverages which started in January 2019 and ended on Jan. 31, 2024.
“The five-year period granted to the industry stakeholders was a practical, reasonable and sufficient time for full compliance with the phase-out of the production of alcoholic beverages in sachets and small volume PET and glass bottles below 200mls.
“For the avoidance of doubt, it is important to emphasise that the ban only affects alcoholic beverages in sachets and small volume PET and glass bottles below 200mls.
“Other presentations of alcoholic beverages are not affected by the ban, and therefore are still permitted for manufacture, importation, distribution, sale and use in Nigeria.”
Adeyeye said NAFDAC remained fully alive to its responsibilities and committed to putting the health of Nigerians in the forefront of regulatory actions, adding that the health of the population is the wealth of the nation.
The NAFDAC DG noted that the primary focus of the ban was as a result of its accessibility, affordable, and portable presentation of high-content alcohol in sachets and small-volume PET and glass bottles below 200mls.
She maintained that the ban is in the interest of the health of the under-aged, vulnerable children and the larger society and is also meant to curb increasing vices attributable to the harmful use of alcohol.
Adeyeye called for continued support, cooperation and collaboration of Nigerians in the task of safeguarding the health of the nation.
(NAN)