In March 2022, International Breweries Plc (IBPlc) officially launched the Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) Program in Lagos State, aimed at developing the capacity of alcohol sales outlets and raising awareness of alcohol health literacy aimed at reducing the harmful use of alcohol. IBPlc engaged New Nigeria Foundation (NNF) as an institutional partner to implement the RBS program in five LGAs in Lagos State (Kosofe, Ibeju Lekki, Eti Osa, Amuwo Odofin, and Surulere LGAs). The program was successful and directly reached 13,355 people, representing 94% of the target of 14,160 persons. Although the program’s duration was too short to measure its impact, the baseline survey results, and end-of-project evaluation demonstrated the RBS program’s influence on owners and servers in alcohol service outlets in the five target LGAs. The evaluation showed an in-depth understanding of the program’s training, and the beneficiaries are putting the RBS practices and procedures they acquired from the training into practice. The RBS program evaluation also revealed a significant increase in liquor laws knowledge. Also, the sales outlets are using signages providing policy information to patrons and have adopted institutional RBS policies.

The programme evaluation indicates that the RBS is a promising strategy for reducing the harmful use of alcohol, as demonstrated by the program’s success.