The Minister of Mines and Technological Development, Ernest Ngwaboubou, Andre Mama Fouda of Public Health and the Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana have met with producers of whisky sold in sachets.

The forum focused on the way forward after the ban on the sale of sachet whisky in Cameroon. The ban contained in an inter-ministerial text of 12th September 2014, gave a two-year period of grace. Following the expiration of this period on the 12^th of September 2016, the parties had to evaluate the situation and discuss the future.

It was a closed-door session whose recommendations were forwarded to the Prime Minister and Head of Government, Philemon Yang. The reasons for the ban follow the observation that sachet whisky was not produced according to norms as producers were using methanol instead of ethanol, hence the alcoholic content was very high and detrimental to the human system.

It was also realized that its availability and cheap nature often led to carefree intake which in turn accounted for a great number of road accidents in the country. The purpose of the ban was therefore to control the illegal production and sale of this locally produced alcohol considered a health and environmental hazard.

CRTV