It was instructive to know that in an hour-long television programmed on Ghana’s State-Owned Television, Mr. Cudjoe of IMANI discussed the issues surrounding alcohol abuse and the need for an alcohol policy for Ghana with two leading Parliamentarians who took part in the debate.

Members will attest to this as Mr. Cudjoe sent out mobile text messages to alert them to watch. The programmed was repeated on Monday 3:00pm on GTV. Our web master is configuring relevant portions of the interview to be posted on AAMI website.

On Wednesday June 24, 2009, Mr. Odarme Darkwah, Deputy CEO of the FDB and Mr. Cudjoe were on Choice FM for an hour to explain why Ghana needed and Alcohol Policy. Our webmaster will work on posting the audio file on AAMI’s website.

Earlier, Mr. Cudjoe and the team had been briefing Mr. Kofi Essel, Ag. Head of Food Section, FDB on the policy.

Mr. Cudjoe also granted an interview to the State-owned Daily Graphic based on their project to review the alcohol laws in Ghana.

Following recent media, as well as roundtable discussion on advertisement alcoholic beverages generated by IMANI and the Ghanaian Food and Drugs Board, Franklin Cudjoe and the F&D Board, successfully wrote, signed and executed a press release lifting the ban on alcoholic beverage advertisements on Friday, October 19 2007.

Franklin has since been interviewed by major media houses on how IMANI helped achieved this feat. Please click here to listen.

The main items of contention covered in the Press Release were that alcoholic beverages advertisement on radio will be aired after 1:00pm instead of 10:00pm -5:00am as existed under the old law even before the ban.
Additionally, commercials for the alcoholic beverages industry on TV will be allowed to be aired 24 hours/day. This gain is a significant departure from 10:00pm-5:00am as existed under the previous law before the ban was imposed.
This is a significant policy battle as it begins the slow process of de-regulation within the market place.