Guinness Nigeria says it is assuring its Nigerian consumers of the quality of its products and materials used in the production of its goods.
This assurance comes amid the allegations made by Nigerian food and drugs regulator NAFDAC, that the company violated its rules including revalidating expired products without its authorization and supervision.
The regulator also alleged that Guinness failed to secure the gate of its warehouse, exposing raw materials used in the production of beer and non-alcoholic beverages to intrusion of the elements and rodents, which NAFDAC said affects the integrity of the raw materials. For the violations, the regulator imposed a fine of N1 billion.
Managing Director of Guinness Nigeria, Peter Ndegwa confirmed that Guinness Nigeria received a letter from NAFDAC, saying, “as a responsible corporate organization, we take these allegations which relate primarily to raw materials stored in one of our raw materials stores very seriously”. He however clarified that the said raw materials store is not a production facility and that the company was engaging NAFDAC for clarifications and resolution of the issues.
According to Ndegwa, “all products from Guinness Nigeria conform to the highest standards of quality, having not only been produced in line with the globally accepted code of good manufacturing practice (GMP), but also been repeatedly so-certified by NAFDAC and the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON)”.
Ndegwa says “the meticulous and painstaking work, including rigorous quality assurance, that precedes the final production of all our products, has an objective to ensure that our consumers drink products that are healthy and comparable with similar products made by a Diageo facility anywhere else in the world.”