Members of the distillers’ association, under the aegis of the Food, Beverages and Tobacco Senior Staff Association and the National Union of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employees, on Friday besieged NAFDAC Lagos office, to protest the order stopping them from making and distributing alcohol in sachets and PET bottles below 200ml.
The ban on the products which generated controversy, with those in the business pushing back at it has now come into effect.
Speaking during the protest, the Executive Secretary of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association, FOBTOB, Solomon Adebosin said no fewer than 5.5 million direct and indirect jobs would be lost to the ban.
“We are here today to protest the sudden seizure of our companies in the distillery sector by NAFDAC concerning the issue of sachet drinks and PET bottles that are less than 200ml.
“We have 500,000 Nigerians working directly in this sector and over five million working indirectly, and they are going to be affected.
“Access and control are what we should be talking about. Let us be able to put control on these things such that children and minors do not have access to them,” Adebosin said.
The ban in his views undermined the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, which seeks to attract investment into the country.
The reason for the ban, which NAFDAC hinged on accessibility of sachet alcohol and PET drinks to minors and children, the executive secretary said was not backed by empirical facts.
In his own remark, the Head of Department, Brewery and Tobacco, of the NUFBTE, Azeez Razaq, alleged that the actions of NAFDAC depicted sabotage of the growth of indigenous manufacturers.
