The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, has spoken in defence of the enforcement of the ban on sachet alcohol, saying Nigeria must prioritise the health and safety of children over commercial interests.
Adeyeye who made this known on ARISE News on Friday, said the decision to enforce the ban followed years of engagement with manufacturers, regulatory extensions, and growing concerns about underage access to high concentration alcohol products.
She clarified that the ban is aimed at protecting children, not to hamper businesses.
“So it is on their side that they are all about money, not about health. We are about health and good investments… But we cannot sacrifice our children on the altar of trade.”
Adeyeye further stated that NAFDAC’s mandate includes regulating alcohol as a food product, stressing that the agency is not banning alcohol outright but restricting its sale in small, easily concealable packages adding
“We are not banning alcohol. We approve alcohol in different packages. It is only in small packages that we are banning.”
Adeyeye traced the policy back to 2018, when NAFDAC first raised concerns about sachet alcohol containing between 43 percent and 45 percent alcohol.
“That can be easily squeezed into the pocket of a primary school, secondary school child.”
She explained that an agreement was reached with industry stakeholders under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Health, granting manufacturers five years to reorganise their businesses.
“We all signed that by, after five years, they will not sell alcohol in sachets.”
She said the initial moratorium expired on 31 January 2024, but enforcement was suspended following interventions from lawmakers and industry groups, leading to an additional one year extension.
“The Minister called me and said there had been some discussion, we should give one year moratorium, an extra one year above the five years that we have given before. And that one year expired December 2025.”
Further reiterating NAFDAC’s position Adeyeye said,
“In 2010, Nigeria signed an agreement, World Health Assembly, 2010, 193 countries signed it that we will not make alcohol to be easily accessible to vulnerable populations.”
She buttressed her argument with accounts from school administrators to illustrate the scale of the problem.
“The principal said that in his school, a student said that he cannot study for exam without a sachet alcohol.”
She warned of long term health consequences for children exposed to alcohol early.
“We are making our children addicts. Addicts.”
“Because you are frying your liver slowly with alcohol over time.”
