Bill to regulate alcohol consumption in Uganda tabled

A private member’s Bill, the Alcoholic Drinks Control Bill, 2023, which seeks to regulate the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcoholic drinks, has been presented to Parliament for consideration.

The Bill, which also seeks to prohibit the sale of alcoholic drinks to children, was tabled during the House sitting on Tuesday, November 14, 2023.

Sarah Opendi (NRM, Tororo District) the mover of the Bill said it has been gazetted as required by law, noting that she was granted leave of the House to introduce the Bill on 08 November 2022.

The Bill got its first reading without the required certificate of financial implications, having passed the mandatory 60 days required to wait for the Bill’s approval from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

“The Minister for Finance declined to give a certificate of financial implications to the Bill and subsequently, we have had to invoke section 76(4) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2015 for the Bill to be read for the first time,” Speaker Anita Among said.

While chairing the House, Among noted that since the Bill had passed the mandatory 60-day threshold, it was thus ready to be tabled on the floor of the House.

The Speaker has referred the Bill to the Committee on Health and that of Tourism, Trade and Industry for scrutiny, and report back to the House.


The Government of Uganda is making every possible effort to improve the health and socio-economic conditions of the people of Uganda in line with the policy of poverty eradication.

The government recognizes the role alcohol plays in Uganda both in terms of its social and economic contribution and in terms of its significant capacity, when misused, to impose unacceptable costs on individuals and the community as a whole.

While alcohol has existed for a long time, science has continued to discover the adverse health, social and economic consequences, some of which interfere with one’s personal, family, or professional life and the wider community, as well as national and regional development endeavors.

Apart from the heavy burden of infectious diseases, Uganda is also experiencing an upsurge in the occurrence of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, cancer, diabetes, mental illness, and chronic heart diseases.

The evidence in literature on the risk of developing non-communicable diseases as a result of alcohol use is irrefutable.

Alcohol can damage nearly every organ in the body and because it is psychoactive, can induce alterations in most of the brain structures and its use contributes to sixty diseases and conditions, including chronic diseases such as alcohol dependence, liver cirrhosis, and acute health problems such as injuries.

About 20% of the admissions at Butabika National Referral Hospital are due to alcohol or other drugs with alcohol contributing over 40% of these.

Data from WHO commissioned 2014 nationwide Non-communicable Risk Factor Survey (STEPS) showed that 25.9% of men and 14.3% women in Uganda were heavy alcohol users.

The 2014 Global Status Report on alcohol also indicated a per capita consumption of 9.8litres compared to 6.0litres in the African region.

Alcohol was also associated with 5.8% prevalence of alcohol use disorders.

Alcohol consumption is associated with high-risk behaviors including unsafe sex and use of other psychoactive substances and tends to be associated with dependence on other drugs and sexually transmitted infections.

The Government of Uganda recognizes that for this policy to be effective and sustainable, cooperation and creative partnerships across all sectors including Health, Ministry of Gender Labor and Social Development, Justice, Law and Order, Local Governments, Education, Trade and Industry, Finance and Civil Society Organizations among others are required. All Ugandans should share responsibility for the successful implementation of this Policy.

On May 25, 2005, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution to adopt the Global Strategy to reduce harmful use of Alcohol which lists policy options and recommendations for addressing harmful use of alcohol.

Uganda also adopted the recommendation of the high-level meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases NCDs held in New York on June 19, 2014, which recognized alcohol as a major risk factor for NCDs among other health problems, and urged countries to reduce alcohol use to address NCDs.

More recently the Sustainable Development Goals in particular Goal 3 – Good Health and Well Being, has a target of strengthening the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol.

Uganda has formulated a policy that will guide actions by all relevant stakeholders to reduce the harmful use of alcohol.