The Management of the alcoholic producing company, GIHOC Distilleries Company Limited, has banned all persons below the age of 18 from accessing the contents of its website.

All persons who desire to access the company’s website are required to enter their date of birth to confirm their ages.

The notice that pops up when one tries to access the website for the first time reads: “Please enter your date of birth. You have to be 18 years to enter this site.”

GIHOC Distilleries Company Limited was the first modern distillery to be established in West Africa.

It was established by the pre-independence Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) in 1958 as the State Distilleries Corporation for the manufacture of alcoholic beverages.

By NLCD 207, it however became a division of the then Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC) in 1968.

In 1980, the distillery together with 15 other divisions of GIHOC was reregistered and incorporated as a Limited Liability Company and wholly owned subsidiary of GIHOC, under Ghana’s Companies Code, 1963 (Act 179).

Following the closure of GIHOC, and subsequently the repeal of the statute incorporating it in 1993, GIHOC Distilleries became and has since remained a limited liability company, wholly owned by the Government of Ghana.

The company said it has since then performed creditably and established itself as a commercially sustainable enterprise in the alcoholic beverage industry in Ghana. It has over the years perfected the art of distillation, refinery, blending and manufacture of various types of alcoholic beverages for the local market and beyond and is now recognised as a market leader.