Public health advocacy groups have backed the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control over its decision to enforce the ban on alcoholic beverages in sachets, PET bottles, and glass bottles of 200ml and below.

The Network for Health Equity and Development (NHED) and Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) made this known in a joint statement on Sunday in Abuja.

The two public health advocacy organisations described the ban as a long-overdue public health intervention essential for safeguarding the well-being of Nigeria’s children, youths and other vulnerable populations.

They said that the packaging, pricing and aggressive marketing of the products made highly potent alcohol dangerously accessible, especially to minors.

They said that it was contributing significantly to rising addiction, social disorder, road crashes and non-communicable diseases across the country.

According to the groups, when NAFDAC first announced the ban in 2024, it gave manufacturers a multi-year phase-out period, which ends in December 2025.

“It was to allow them to exhaust existing stock. But some alcohol manufacturers flagrantly continued production even after the deadline,” they said.

They condemned the pushback from these manufacturers, particularly the claim by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria that the ban could lead to investment decline and retrenchment.

They said that it was a familiar scare tactic to push the government to prioritise commercial greed over public health.

They stated, “The manufacturing process of these products is mostly mechanised and requires relatively limited human effort; hence, the claims about huge job losses are contrived. We reject in its entirety the claims by the MAN that the ban will trigger a loss of over N1.9 trillion in investment and lead to the retrenchment of over 500,000 workers. These figures are not only inflated and unverifiable, but they also represent a familiar scare tactic used by alcohol and tobacco corporations globally whenever governments attempt to regulate harmful products.”

The groups said that, rather than engaging honestly with evidence-based public health policies, industry actors had chosen to weaponise economic misinformation to blackmail the Nigerian government and regulatory agencies.

“This behaviour is irresponsible, deceptive, and unbecoming of entities that claim to operate ethically,” they said.

Meanwhile, NHED’s Technical Director, Dr Jerome Mafeni, said that protecting lives must take precedence.

“The long-term social and economic costs of alcohol-related harm far outweigh any short-term profits that manufacturers seek to protect. Nigeria currently bears the burden of increased alcohol-related violence, reduced productivity, escalating healthcare costs and a rising addiction crisis among young people. These harms disproportionately affect poor and marginalised communities which sachet alcohol products specifically target,” Mr Mafeni said.

He said that it was unacceptable that children could purchase high-concentration alcoholic products for as little as N100.

“It is equally unacceptable that manufacturers have, for years, prioritised profit over the safety and well-being of Nigerians,” he said.

(NAN)