The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has commenced the enforcement of the ban on the importation, manufacture, distribution, sale, and use of alcoholic beverages in sachets, PET, and glass bottles of 200 millilitres and below.

The Director-General of NAFDAC, Professor MOJISOLA ADEYEYE, stated this at a press conference in Abuja.

She said the five-year window given to the manufacturers of the products to stop producing the drinks in sachets and pet bottles which began in 2018 elapsed on January 31, 2024.

According to her, the ban was not a sudden development but a result of a multilateral Committee that agreed that the ban would be in phases whereby production would be reduced by 50 per cent by 2020 while the outright ban would be on January 31, 2024.

Prof ADEYEYE said NAFDAC took the route of wiping out the drinks in such sachets because of the negative effects on underage children.

She said because the drinks come in pocket-friendly sizes, accessible and affordable, children easily fell for the packages only to face the consequences in the future.

She added that during enforcement actions, it was discovered that some manufacturers of the banned products were still producing the products, and still had stacks of both finished products and packaging materials of the products in their possession.