Onome Amuge
The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has criticised the renewed enforcement of a ban on sachet and small-pack alcoholic drinks, warning that the move risks damaging investment, jobs and confidence in the country’s regulatory framework.
According to NECA, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) had resumed enforcement actions despite a December 2025 directive from the office of the secretary to the government of the federation suspending the ban, as well as a March 2024 resolution of the House of Representatives calling for restraint and broader stakeholder consultation.
In a statement signed by Wale-Smatt Oyerinde, the director-general, NECA, the association described the action as a regulatory overreach that was already disrupting legitimate businesses and unsettling ongoing investments in the beverages sector. The group said thousands of jobs across manufacturing, packaging, distribution and retail were at risk at a time when Nigeria’s economy is under pressure from high operating costs, currency volatility and weak consumer purchasing power.
“Investor confidence depends on predictability and respect for due process,” Oyerinde said, adding that sudden regulatory reversals undermined trust in Nigeria’s policy environment.
NECA stressed that it supported public health objectives, including protecting minors and removing unsafe products from the market. However, it argued that the current approach was misdirected, disproportionately targeting compliant manufacturers while failing to address what it described as the real drivers of underage access to alcohol and the wider problem of illicit substance abuse.
According to the employers’ group, the alcoholic products now affected by the ban were tested, registered and periodically revalidated under NAFDAC’s own scientific procedures, with alcohol content clearly labelled and falling within internationally recognised standards. Reclassifying such products as inherently dangerous without presenting new scientific evidence raised concerns about regulatory consistency, NECA said.
The association also rejected the idea that packaging size was the core issue behind underage drinking. Access control, it said, was fundamentally an enforcement problem at the retail level. Where minors obtain alcohol, the failure lies in weak monitoring of outlets and poor enforcement of age restrictions, not in the existence of sachets or small bottles that are legally consumed by adults.
NECA warned that eliminating low-cost packaging formats in a country where many consumers rely on small, daily purchases could push demand into informal and unregulated markets, increasing health risks while shrinking the formal economy and government tax revenues.
It also questioned the allocation of regulatory resources, arguing that enforcement pressure was being concentrated on a regulated segment of the drinks industry while more dangerous illicit narcotics and abused pharmaceuticals continued to circulate widely among young people.
Environmental concerns linked to plastic waste, while valid, should be addressed through waste management reforms, recycling systems and extended producer responsibility schemes applied across sectors, the group added. Using environmental arguments to justify selective product bans risked conflating waste policy with product safety regulation.
NECA called for the immediate suspension of the enforcement actions in line with the federal government’s earlier directive, and urged regulators to return to structured, evidence-based dialogue with industry, public health experts and consumer groups. The priority, it said, should be tougher retail-level enforcement, stronger public education on responsible consumption, intensified action against illicit products and collaborative approaches to environmental challenges.
“Regulation should protect public health without destroying jobs or discouraging investment. Policies that ignore evidence, economic realities and the rule of law risk doing more harm than good,” Oyerinde added.
