Following the recent enforcement of ban on alcoholic contents in sachets and small bottles on Feb 1, 2024, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has said that alcoholic content in sachets or small bottles of less than 200ml is 30 percent and that the percentage is too high, noting that beer contains only four to eight percent.
The Head of Public Relations Office, NAFDAC, Christiana Obiazikwor, disclosed this in a press statement.
The announcement by the Director-General of the agency, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, about the agency’s commencement of nationwide enforcement actions of the ban on February 1, 2024, had generated repeated protests by distillers and labour unions, who said the move would cost 500,000 workers their jobs.
The agency, in a statement, said, “NAFDAC did not ban alcohol production in bigger bottles. The agency only banned alcohol in containers, sachets or PET bottles less than 200ml.
READ MORE: NAFDAC Starts enforcement of ban on sachet alcoholic drinks
“The alcoholic content in sachets or PET bottles less than 200 ml is 30 percent, which is too high. Beer has four to eight percent.
“People mostly at risk of the negative effects of consumption of the banned pack sizes of alcoholic beverages are the under-aged, commercial vehicle drivers and riders,” the agency warned.
The organisation further stated that Nigeria was among the 193 members of the World Health Organization (WHO) that adopted resolution WHA63.13 at the sixty-third session of the World Health Assembly, held in Geneva in 2010, marking a historical consensus on a worldwide plan to decrease the harmful use of alcohol.
“It is an agreement signed by Nigeria with other nations that we will protect youth by making alcohol not easily reachable and accessible,” it added.