Chief Regulatory Officer for the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) Kofi Essel has asked celebrities and popular people who have challenges with the ban on celebrities from advertising alcohol to sue the Authority.
According to him, the FDA can sue and can be sued and therefore if any individual is peeved and affected by the ban, there is the need for the laws to be tested.
“Oh you can, FDA can sue and can be sued. You can go to court because FDA has a guideline that says that well-known persons cannot advertise alcoholic beverages and alcoholic beverages can be advertised within a certain time frame and you don’t understand it, you can go to court and challenge that order.
As far as I’m concerned as I speak today, I don’t think anybody has taken us to court but people can exercise that right.”
On whether there will be a review of the regulation in the future or not, Mr Essel indicated that regulations are dynamic and that anything can happen in the future although he’s not certain that there will be a change.
It could be remembered that in 2020, Ghanaian celebrities advocated for the regulation that prevented celebrities from advertising alcohol should be discarded because their colleagues outside the Ghana are benefiting immensely from alcohol advertisement.
A leading figure in this conversation was Wendy Shay of Ruff Town Records who threatened to sue the regulatory body because she had lost a deal with an alcoholic beverage company that was launching in Ghana.
