Ban on alcoholic sachet drinks threat to jobs, security, says NUFBTE
13 February 2024 |
2:30 am
The National Union of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE) said the ban on alcoholic drinks in sachets and pet bottles would destabilise investments and constitute a threat to job security.
The National Union of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE) said the ban on alcoholic drinks in sachets and pet bottles would destabilise investments and constitute a threat to job security. The union lamented that the policy implementation at this critical time of economic turbulence in the country was tantamount to government’s insensitivity to the excruciating pains ravaging the entire economic and employment horizon across the country.
NUFBTE President, Garba Ibrahim, who spoke in Lagos, listed some of the negative impacts on businesses and described the ban as humongous and worrisome.
He said the ban would lead to avoidable relocation of production factories out of Nigeria to neighbouring countries, where the cost of production was more profitable. He alleged the loss of more than one direct and indirect job in food and beverage companies.
Ibrahim alleged that it would resort to unhealthy consumption of locally unregulated and hazardous alternative products with its attendant negative impacts on the health of vulnerable Nigerians. He said the policy would create an opportunity for dumping of substandard products on the country’s open markets through the unwholesome activities of smugglers.
He alleged the ban would limit government revenues derivable from taxes and duties from the affected companies.Proffering short and long-term measures, the union urged that the Federal Government should put on hold the implementation of the policy.
The workers urged that government should rather engage the producers of sachet drinks to arrive at an acceptable moratorium period that would allow adequate planning before the policy could be implemented eventually.
The union urged that the Federal Government should reappraise the monitoring and control mechanism that would effectively prevent the abuse of unresisted sales and consumption of the products, particularly by the underaged.
It urged that government should embark on aggressive campaigns and orientations to create public awareness of the adverse effects of consuming alcoholic products by the underaged.
It urged that the government should create a conducive and enabling environment for the production companies to effectively explore the utilisation of standard alternative materials to replace products in the sachet.
It further urged that the Federal Government should expeditiously act by putting a halt to the implementation of “this wrongly timed policy which has already led to the closure of more than 950 production lines and outright closure of more than five production factories within one week of the implementation of the policy across the country.
“What Nigerian investors and workers need now is absolute protection of jobs and enhancement of sustainable livelihood for both the investors and Nigerian workers,” the union said.
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