Nigeria’s drug and food regulator has moved its long-running war on sachet alcohol from press conferences to the streets. The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says its enforcement teams are now combing markets, motor parks, bars and retail outlets across all six geopolitical zones, seizing sachets and PET bottles under 200ml wherever they find them — the most aggressive phase yet of a ban that manufacturers have spent the better part of a decade trying to delay.
A ban eight years in the making
This isn’t a new policy. NAFDAC first signed a five-year memorandum of understanding with the Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria (DIBAN), the Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employers, and the Health Ministry back in December 2018, giving manufacturers until December 2023 to phase out sachets and small bottles voluntarily.
the Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employers, and the Health Ministry back in December 2018, giving manufacturers until December 2023 to phase out sachets and small bottles voluntarily.
When that deadline passed, NAFDAC tried to enforce it on February 1, 2024 — only for producers to appeal to the House of Representatives’ committee on NAFDAC, which ordered the agency to stand down. A further one-year extension followed in December 2024, granted by then-Health Minister Muhammad Pate. That grace period expired at the end of 2025, and the Senate subsequently directed NAFDAC to resume strict enforcement without further extensions — enforcement that formally took effect January 1, 2026, backed by a joint campaign with the National Orientation Agency and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
Even then, the fight wasn’t settled. In February, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Office of the National Security Adviser jointly ordered NAFDAC to halt enforcement altogether, citing economic and security concerns. Days later, the Health Ministry told the Federal High Court in a counter-affidavit that NAFDAC alone has the legal authority to enforce the ban and that the ministry doesn’t control its enforcement decisions — part of a case brought by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), which is seeking a court order permanently barring any further moratoriums. This week’s nationwide seizure operation is the clearest sign yet that the enforcement camp has won that internal argument, at least for now.
The numbers behind the ban
NAFDAC’s case rests heavily on a 2021 survey it commissioned with DIBAN, carried out by Research and Data Solutions Ltd and covering 1,788 respondents across six states representing Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones. Director-General Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye has called the results “damning”: 54.3% of minors and underage respondents said they obtained alcohol on their own, and nearly half — 49.9% — bought it from vendors selling sachets and PET bottles. Of those procuring their own drinks, 47.2% of minors and 48.8% of underage respondents chose sachets specifically because they’re easy to conceal. The survey also found that 63.2% of minors and 54% of underage respondents drank occasionally, while roughly one in ten minors and a quarter of underage respondents reported drinking daily — with the youngest reported drinkers as young as nine. Sachet and PET consumption was highest in Rivers State (68% and 64.5% respectively), followed by Lagos and Kaduna.
| Category | Jobs at risk (MAN estimate) | Share of total |
|---|---|---|
| Direct factory jobs | 500,000 | 9% |
| Indirect jobs (logistics, marketing, retail) | 5,000,000 | 91% |
| Total | 5,500,000 | 100% |
And below is the underlying underage-drinking survey data
| Metric | Minors | Underage |
|---|---|---|
| Self-procure alcohol | 54.3%* | 54.3%* |
| Obtain via sachets | 47.2% | 48.8% |
| Obtain via PET bottles | 41.2% | 47.2% |
| Obtain via glass bottles | — | 27.6% |
| Drink occasionally | 63.2% | 54.0% |
| Drink daily | 9.3% | 25.2% |
| Drink at least weekly | 11.3% | 9.4% |
What the operation covers
Under the current enforcement drive, NAFDAC teams are authorized to identify, seize and remove products from every point in the supply chain — manufacturers, importers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers and transporters.
The agency has urged anyone still holding stock to surrender it voluntarily, warning that continued possession or sale now constitutes a legal violation carrying seizure, regulatory sanctions and possible prosecution. The operation follows the earlier closure of manufacturing plants found to be non-compliant, and NAFDAC is asking the public to help by refusing to buy the banned products and reporting violations through its toll-free line or nearest office.
The industry’s case against it
Manufacturers haven’t stopped fighting. The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has warned the ban puts roughly ₦1.9 trillion in industry investment at risk, with projections of 500,000 direct job losses and knock-on effects for as many as five million people working in logistics, marketing and retail around the sector.
DIBAN, alongside the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress, has staged repeated protests at NAFDAC’s Lagos office and called for Adeyeye’s removal, accusing the agency of favoring multinational drinks companies over small local producers whose business model depends on cheap, single-serve packaging.
Brands caught in the crossfire include sachet lines from Intercontinental Distillers, Stellar Beverages and Nigeria Distilleries — companies for whom sachets have historically driven the bulk of sales volume in a market where many consumers can’t afford full-size bottles.
Public health advocates counter that the job-loss estimates are inflated, since sachet-filling lines are largely automated rather than labor-intensive, and point to Uganda’s 2019 sachet ban as a case where manufacturers shifted to larger formats without the industry collapsing.
They also cite Scotland’s minimum-pricing rules, credited with a roughly 10% drop in alcohol-related deaths, as evidence that packaging and pricing restrictions can cut harm without destroying an industry outright.
The bigger picture
NAFDAC insists this was never a ban on alcohol itself — only on the smallest, cheapest, easiest-to-hide formats, which the agency’s own data ties directly to underage access. Whether this enforcement round sticks will depend on whether the current government stays aligned behind it: the last three attempts at enforcement, in 2018, 2024 and briefly this February, were all interrupted by pushback from the National Assembly or federal agencies weighing the economic cost.
For now, the seizures are happening in markets and motor parks across the country — but Nigeria’s sachet alcohol fight has been declared “over” before, only to resume months later.
