The Menace of Skin-Bleaching in Nigeria

Nigeria is one of the largest markets for skin-bleaching products in the world partly due to the desire for lighter skin by some dark-skinned Nigerians. In tandem with this is the upsurge of skincare brands centred on skin-lightening and the procedures used to this effect which constantly undergo phases of advancement from bleaching creams and soap to glutathione drips, pills, injections, skin-lightening baths, and currently the ‘organic skincare’ trend which tries to drape a deceptive cloak on the skin-bleaching phenomenon. The names of these products often include keywords like ‘half-caste’, ‘whitening’, ‘lightening’, ‘brightening’, and ‘glow’, all of which emphasize that they are purposed towards achieving fairer skin tones within a short time.

Akind of behind-the-scene video that the local manufacturers of these organic products often share implies a literal application of the beauty tip ‘if you can’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin’.The typical one features a producer preparing a cocktail of ingredients which include items like milk, yoghurt drinks, and honey, in a plastic bowl, following no specific measurement, cosmetological procedure, or precautionary measures. They even eat these food items to ‘assure’ potential customers that the products are natural, consumable, and thus, ‘safe’.The principal but often undisclosed ingredients that aid the evident rapid-action, skin-lightening results of these products, as revealed by a 2023 investigative report by Business Day, are toxic skin-bleaching chemicals, a norm (especially) among local organic skincare product manufacturers. This explains why many of these brands might shy away from listing their ingredients. They may also try to evade the legal requirement of registering their products with the Nigerian Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), whichis in charge ofregulating products like food, drugs, and cosmetics and ensuring they meet required safety standard—NAFDAC GMP Guidelines for Cosmetics Products (2021), in the case of cosmetic products.

In 2023, the director general of NAFDAC, Mojisola Adeyeye, lamented that the use of bleaching products in Nigeria had become a national health emergency and emphasized NAFDAC’s dedication to curbing the ‘menace’. Despite Nigeria teeming with (organic) skin-bleaching product merchants who even promote their brands publicly, the agency’s role in the Jenny’s Glow controversy has been the major point of reference to this ‘dedication’ so far.

In August 2023, Jennifer Igbinoba, the owner of the organic skincare brand, Jenny’s Glow, posted a video on Instagram, refuting the claims that her brand’s branch at Abuja was sealed by NAFDAC. She explained that 18 out of 25 products were seized instead, pending the completion of their registration processes with NAFDAC. That those products were already in circulation while their registration process had not been completed is a breach of the first section of the Food, Drugs, and Related Products (Registration, etc.)Act of 2004 which provides that no product that falls under NAFDAC control should be ‘manufactured, imported, exported, advertised, sold or distributed in Nigeria,’ if the product is not registered per the provisions of the Act. An exception only applies in cases where the agency permits the manufacture of a product’s sample for ‘registration or clinical trial’.

Igbinoba also pointed out that many other skincare products are not registered with NAFDAC because of the time and money the process costs but this doesn’t make their products unsafe. This claim contradicts NAFDAC’s ‘Guidelines for Registration of Cosmetics Made in Nigeria’ (13/12/2021) which states that ‘the time-line for product registration from acceptance of submissions to issuance of registration number is one hundred and twenty (120) working days’.

Ms Ifunanya Anona, a lawyer and NAFDAC registration agent confirms that the reality of registering one’s products with NAFDAC is worlds apart from the guidelines’ provision as the process can be capital intensive, draining, and time-consuming. She told me that,

An average business might need at least 3.5 to 5 million naira to set up a reasonably fair facility that meets up with NAFDAC’s standards. There are also business owners who have spent as long as two years pursuing NAFDAC registration. Others even end up giving up.

Anona, who also owns a manufacturing brand, has also experienced a similar ordeal first hand, as her work involves serving as an intermediary that helps save brand owners the rigour of applying for NAFDAC certification. Brands willing to register their products with NAFDAC often face hurdles getting registration numbers if they don’t know to seek information outside the stipulated guidelines. This barrier forms the basis of the alternatives that manufacturers seek outside of registering their products with NAFDAC. Unfortunately, this reportedly arduous process also helps makers of harmful products like skin-bleaching cosmetics rationalize not registering their products with NAFDAC.

Often owners of skin whitening products will typically claim—as Jenny’s Glow did—that their brands are certified by NAFDAC. The skin-bleaching effect of their products is also widely known—one of the jokes on Nigerian X (formerly Twitter) is the attribution of a person’s skin getting lighter to the use of Jenny’s Glow. Such views, the continued sprouting of skin whitening brands, and the draining process of NAFDAC registration suggest that NAFDAC’s dedication to dousing the use of skin-bleaching products does not match the infernal intensity of the problem.

Skin bleaching is reported to have started gaining more acceptance in the 1960s due to factors like popular culture at that time. The 1960s, ironically, was the decade of James Brown’s 1968 Black Pride-centred song, ‘Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud’. However, before that was Victor Olaiya’s ‘Omo Pupa’ of the early 1960s, a song indicating the singer’s preference for light-skinned women which, from being on the lips of the people across the country, found its way to their minds, manifesting in the yearning for lighter skin especially among women and the embracement of skin bleaching.

Fela’s 1971 ‘Yellow Fever’ song, which was aimed for an antithetical effect, paints a picture of what the situation looked like. In the song, Fela berates people who bleach their skin and ridicules the uneven tones that become of them. Uneven tones, however, are the least of the risks associated with skin bleaching in Nigeria.

Some of the major bleaching agents associated with skin-lightening products are hydroquinone, mercury and corticosteroids, all of which are prohibited by NAFDAC. According to a 2017 paper by Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Yetunde Olumide, these agents expose the users to neuropathic, neurotoxic, and cutaneous health challenges like kidney diseases, ataxia, fibrinolysis disorders, skin infections, loss of skin elasticity and wound dehiscence.

Dr Adebiyi Oluwatosin, a medical doctor and skincare consultant, told me about encountering a case of dehiscence in a motor accident victim who had bleached skin. ‘One of the cases I’ve come across in my clinical practice as a doctor is that of a woman who was involved in a terrible accident and needed life-saving sutures,’ she explained. ‘But unfortunately kept having wound breakdown because the effects of skin-bleaching creams had thinned out the skin to the point where the sutures couldn’t hold.’

Dr Oluwatosin also argued that high demand for medical practitioners specializing in skin and kidney diseases in the coming years is inevitable in Nigeria. According to her,

The kidneys being a major target of the harmful toxins contained in bleaching products implies that nephrologists are going to be in high demand in the coming years. So, we’re likely going to need more centres for dialysis and management of kidney failure. Dermatologists and oncologists are also going to have their hands full due to the suspected rise of skin cancers and other skin conditions.

Although the culture of skin bleaching cuts across all socio-demographic groups in Nigeria, the types of products people use depend on the financial status of the user—ridiculously cheaper products are more accessible for people on the lower economic ladder. Bunching the health consequences with the current medical brain drain and weak infrastructure in the country’s health sector will produce a thread of high morbidity that cuts across Nigeria resulting in dire consequences for the country at large.

We can expect that poorer Nigerians, who are often priced out of quality healthcare, are more likely suffer from bleach-induced complications than wealthier Nigerians. Besides the overall effect of these health implications on the country at large being negative, individual lives are also affected: meaning people are subjected to the physically, financially and psychologically draining routine of caring for their ailing loved ones or the pain of losing them, following the long-term ramifications of using skin whitening products⎈