The Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB) and the National Union of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE) have urged the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to adhere to the provisions of the Draft National Alcohol Policy.

The policy recommends access control measures to prevent minors from purchasing alcoholic products, rather than an outright ban on the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in sachets.

Over the weekend, members of the union, including the Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria, staged a protest at the Lagos State office of NAFDAC over the ban on the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in sachets.

The protesters, who converged on the NAFDAC office on Friday morning, carried placards and chanted solidarity songs, urging the regulatory agency to reverse what they described as a policy that threatens local industries and millions of jobs.

The protesters were brandished with inscriptions such as “Stop destroying local manufacturers”, “N2 trillion investment deserves protection”, “5.5 million Nigerians cannot be pushed to the streets” and “The Renewed Hope Agenda must work for all Nigerians”.

The unionists said the ban has already begun to take a toll on manufacturers and workers across the value chain, warning that continued enforcement could cripple indigenous distilling companies and discourage foreign investment in the sector.

Following the protest, representatives of FOBTOB and NUFBTE held a meeting with the Director-General of NAFDAC over the agency’s recent actions, which include sealing off companies producing sachet alcohol and shutting down specific production lines for the affected stock-keeping units (SKUs).

The union leaders expressed concern that the action was taken despite a directive from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) asking the agency to stay further enforcement pending broader consultations.

National President of FOBTOB, Jimoh Oyibo, said that it appeared there were some other hands behind the action of NAFDAC due to the flouting of the directive from the Office of the SGF.

He expressed concern at the claim by the NAFDAC Director-General that the one-year moratorium given to discuss and recommend the National Alcohol Policy was not to effect any ban.

Also reacting to the development, FOBTOB’s Executive Secretary, Solomon Adebosin, said NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, claimed during the meeting that she was unaware of any such directive from the SGF, adding that the sealing of the production lines was aimed at preventing children from having access to the products.