Nigeria’s Labour unions are currently protesting at the Abuja headquarters of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) against the ban of sachet alcohol sale in the country.
Members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to the NAFDAC office on Tuesday morning to voice out that the ban was counterproductive and evil to the companies.
Earlier this month, the NAFDAC Director-general Prof Mojisola Adeyeye ordered a ban on alcoholic beverages produced in sachets less than 200ml.
The agency said the five-year window given to the manufacturers of the products to stop producing the drinks in sachets and pet bottles began in 2018 and elapsed on January 31, 2024.
She said enforcement of the ban commenced on February 1, 2024. Prof Adeyeye stated this at a media briefing in Abuja on Monday, February 5. She said the ban was not a hasty development but a result of a multilateral Committee that agreed that the ban would be in phases whereby production would be reduced by 50 percent by 2020 while an outright ban would be on January 31, 2024.
Given that decision, the DG said NAFDAC did not issue renewal licenses exceeding January 2024 to any manufacturer of the products.