Pernod Ricard Nigeria has reinforced its working relationship with NAFDAC through a senior management visit to the regulator’s Lagos office, as enforcement against counterfeit spirits in Nigeria reaches its most intensive level in years.
The visit, which included Operations Director Bode Omosagba alongside the company’s supply chain and corporate affairs leads, focused on intelligence sharing, supply chain integrity, and product authentication. It follows an April 2026 NAFDAC operation that dismantled two illegal production facilities in Lagos, seizing counterfeit versions of premium brands including Hennessy, Martell, Jameson, and Jack Daniel’s, with a combined estimated value of N350 million. Jameson and Martell are both Pernod Ricard labels.
The collaboration has a practical dimension the press release does not state plainly. Pernod Ricard Nigeria General Manager Michael Ehindero said in a July 2025 interview that the company feeds information directly to security agencies and that NAFDAC’s market raids are in part driven by Pernod Ricard’s own intelligence network. The company maintains a dedicated internal brand security team.
The commercial case for that investment is not difficult to make. Data cited by the Spirits and Wines Association of Nigeria puts illicit trade at roughly 40 percent of the country’s spirits and wines market, meaning close to two in every five bottles sold originate outside regulated supply chains. For a premium cognac and whiskey portfolio, that proportion represents a direct revenue and reputational threat. Counterfeiters do not merely undercut the price of the product. They undercut the brand.
NAFDAC’s side of the relationship has also been moving. At a press briefing marking World Anti-Counterfeiting Day in June 2026, NAFDAC’s Director of Investigation Martin Iluyomade said fake cosmetics and beverages account for more than half of all counterfeiting cases recorded in Nigeria, and called for stronger collaboration between manufacturers and the regulator. The agency has already extended enforcement pressure beyond markets and warehouses: in June 2026, NAFDAC warned airlines, shipping companies, and logistics operators that facilitating counterfeit imports risks sanctions and prosecution.
Dr. Olakunle Olaniran, Director of the Port Inspection Directorate at NAFDAC, used the Pernod Ricard visit to push for expanded local production, a position that aligns with Pernod Ricard Nigeria’s existing Imperial Blue manufacturing footprint. Whether that signals further localisation ambitions is not yet clear.
The next stress test for the industry-regulator relationship is distribution channel integrity. NAFDAC officials have noted that counterfeiters are increasingly exploiting cargo consolidation systems, e-commerce platforms, and bonded terminals to move product, channels where manufacturer intelligence is often faster than regulatory surveillance. That is precisely where a partnership with active brand security operations becomes operationally relevant.
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