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The Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) has urged the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) not to be intimidated by the alcohol and beverage industry’s blackmail tactics as it presses ahead with enforcing the ban on the production, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages in sachets, PET bottles, and glass bottles of 200ml or less.
The enforcement exercise, which began on January 22, 2026, is the culmination of more than two years of back and forth between NAFDAC and the alcohol industry over the implementation.
The Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employers, and Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria had signed an agreement with the Ministry of Health and NAFDAC in December 2018 to phase out production of alcohol in sachet and PET bottles less than 200 ml by January 31, 2024.
At the expiration of the deadline a further extension was given to enable members to adequately prepare for the ban.
The Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB), which claimed that the ban has disrupted operations of many of its members in different parts of the country, has criticised the policy. There has also been pushback from the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), both of which also hinged their arguments on job losses.
NAFDAC has however insisted that there is no going back on the policy, insisting that its decision was informed by health risks for children whose physiological systems are exposed to alcohol early and the damage it causes.
RDI Executive Director, Philip Jakpor, said: We must commend NAFDAC for this bold life-saving action. The enforcement of the ban on sachet alcohol is long overdue, and it is a step in the right direction. NAFDAC must remain undeterred by the usual rhetoric of the beverage and alcohol industry whose line of argument is usually about imaginary job losses because of their prioritization of profits over health.
“We have said it time and again that alcohol harm is a major but under-addressed driver of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and mental health conditions. Not only adults: Children are victims of this menace and science has proven it.”
While dismissing the beverage and alcohol industry arguments, Jakpor pointed out that it is a known and well documented fact that the industry and their front groups deliberately stand in the way of any form of regulation.
He cited the Movendi International 2025 Big Alcohol Exposed Report which documented 1,300 cases and 77 independent studies of the alcohol industry’s global system of interference that obstructs evidence-based alcohol policy despite strong public support.
“The sustained effort by alcohol lobby in Nigeria to kill and bury the enforcement of the sachet alcohol ban through a potential job loss claim is a clear testament that reinforces a statement in the Big Alcohol Exposed Report that the alcohol industry operates through concrete policy arenas, institutional arrangements, and political moments, adapting to local contexts while following a deliberate and recognisable global strategy.”
While urging NAFDAC to stand firm in the face of the gathering storm, he said that the new policy is epochal and would be a shining example to other African countries that are also entangled in the industry’s web of lies to sustain their grip on consumers including innocent children.
“We use this medium to commend NAFDAC and its director-general, Professor Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye, for placing the wellness of Nigerian citizens far and above profit motives. Nigerians fully support this action. The false narrative and twisted rhetoric of the alcohol industry to continue business as usual will fail this time,” he insisted.
