The House of Representatives Committee over-sighting the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has disclosed that the agency may in no distant time, temporarily lift the ban on production and sale of alcoholic beverages in sachet.
NAFDAC had slammed the ban on such products after a moratorium of five years allowed for manufacturers to phase them out.
This sparked nationwide condemnations over concerns for loss of jobs and other economic losses, and after which the House mandated the Committee to look into the development.
Briefing journalists on Friday, the deputy spokesman of the House, who is also a member of the Committee, Philip Agbese, disclosed that through the engagements with NAFDAC and other stakeholders, they had all agreed that implementation of the ban was at a wrong time “considering the present economic situation in the country.”
He said the five-year moratorium was seemingly not enough for manufacturers to meet the deadline, flowing from effects of the Covid-19 outbreak, adding that the director-general of NAFDAC, Prof. Moji Adeyeye, had agreed to take a second look at the ban “with a human face.”
“There may be a temporary lift until a better time that the economy may have improved,” he said.