As Nigeria’s youth alcohol crisis deepens without a functioning national policy, a spirits maker based in Ota has put its own female workforce on the front line
There is an uncomfortable irony at the heart of what Intercontinental Distillers Limited (IDL) did last week, and it is precisely the point.
A company that has manufactured gin, rum, schnapps, and bitters from its distillery on the Ota,Idiroko road since 1984 sent a team of its female employees into a local secondary school to tell students in unambiguous terms: alcohol is not for you. The message, delivered at Iganmode Grammar School in Ota, Ogun State, is blunter than the usual industry language of “responsible consumption.” It is targeted, community,rooted, and, if IDL follows through on its stated plan, set to reach many more classrooms in the coming weeks.
The urgency behind it is not manufactured. Studies published in 2015, 2021, and 2023 found drinking prevalence among Nigerian youths rising from 30% to 34% to 55.8%. A WHO 2018 report found that 22.5% of Nigerian youth aged 15 to 19 engaged in heavy episodic drinking, a figure among the highest recorded on the African continent. And Nigeria has no comprehensive national alcohol control policy, leaving marketing almost entirely unregulated, meaning awareness campaigns by industry players, imperfect as they may be, are filling a vacuum that government has yet to close.
The IDL initiative, organised under the company’s women’s network, the IDL Amazons, was tagged ‘Focus Is the Flex’ and timed to coincide with International Women’s Day, under the theme ‘Give to Gain.’ The campaign frames abstaining from alcohol not as sacrifice, but as ambition.
“The ‘Focus Is the Flex’ initiative was created to provide students with the knowledge, confidence, and courage to resist these pressures,” said Bertina Bamgbose, IDL’s HR Manager and Team Lead of the IDL Amazons. “True strength lies in discipline, self-respect, and focus on their aspirations.”
Bamgbose was emphatic that this would not be a one,off. She confirmed that hundreds of students have already been reached and that IDL plans to partner with the Ogun State Ministry of Education to extend the campaign into additional schools. The decision to target IDL’s own host community, the Ota,Awori corridor where the company has operated for four decades, signals an acknowledgment that a spirits manufacturer carries particular obligations toward the young people who grow up nearest its gates.
The campaign’s clinical anchor was Victoria Elegbede, a psychiatrist who told students what peer pressure rarely admits.
“Drug abuse can affect you physically, it can affect your social well,being, a person’s psychological well,being, the dangers are far,reaching and can lead to social problems, legal issues, and financial difficulties.”
Elegbede also addressed alcohol specifically, warning that early drinking damages the developing brain and raises the long,term risk of liver disease and dependency, risks that, she stressed, only become fully apparent with maturity.
The campaign lands at a moment of acute policy turbulence around youth alcohol access in Nigeria. NAFDAC’s ban on spirits packaged in sachets and bottles smaller than 200ml, a form of packaging that previously made alcohol accessible for under ₦200, putting it within easy reach of any minor with pocket money, has become a political flashpoint. The Federal Government has since ordered NAFDAC to suspend enforcement pending consultations, with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation warning that premature implementation could destabilise communities and worsen unemployment. The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has argued the ban is counterproductive, while stressing it does not oppose discouraging alcohol consumption by children.
The stalemate means that community,level education, exactly what IDL’s Amazons are delivering in Ota classrooms, remains one of the few functioning interventions while policy catches up.
Students at Iganmode Grammar School left with something harder to regulate than packaging. SS3 science student Praise Oluwadamilola said the session made clear that how students handle the present will shape their future. Classmate Alaka Boluwatife added a point worth amplifying: enjoying life and keeping clean are not in conflict.
For IDL, Nigeria’s leading producer of Chelsea Dry Gin, Eagle Schnapps, and Squadron Rum among others, ‘Focus Is the Flex’ is both a community investment and, unavoidably, a statement about the kind of market the industry should want: one built on adults who choose, not minors who were never protected.
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