CWAY, a major player in Nigeria’s packaged-water market, is facing fresh regulatory scrutiny after the Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency (LASCOPA) conducted an unscheduled inspection of its water production facility following a viral social media video and consumer complaints.
The inspection followed a meeting between LASCOPA officials and CWAY management and covered the company’s bottle-filling, capping, labelling and dispatch operations, alongside its packaging, transportation, storage and distribution processes, according to reports by Business Post’s Aduragbemi Omiyale and TVC News on September 24, 2026.
During the inspection, LASCOPA officials saw plastic packaging materials that had been set aside for disposal. CWAY representatives told the agency that bottles considered unfit for reuse are processed through a grinding machine and sold to plastic manufacturers as raw material.
The company also told inspectors that its internal records show about 1,000 bottles are discarded daily. That figure was supplied by CWAY and has not been independently verified.
Representing LASCOPA General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Afolabi Solebo, the agency’s Board Secretary and Head of Legal, Arinola Momoh-Ayokanmbi, directed CWAY to adopt internationally recognised standards across its transportation, distribution and storage processes.
LASCOPA’s Director of Scientific Investigation, Research and Development, Suluka Raheem, also recommended that handles be incorporated into the bottles to reduce slippage, while calling for a defined shelf-life policy to remove bottles from circulation after a specified period.
Raheem further urged stronger training for distributors, particularly on preventing exposure of the products to direct sunlight during transportation.
CWAY has not separately issued a public statement on the inspection or the social media video that triggered the regulatory visit. Its explanation concerning the discarded bottles was made by company representatives during the inspection.
The development comes as the CWAY brand also features in a separate enforcement action by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
In a report published by The ICIR on September 17, 2026, NAFDAC said it had uncovered operators illegally refilling 19-litre CWAY-branded bottles with water from unapproved sources before supplying the products to hotels and supermarkets. The agency’s enforcement action was directed at those operators, rather than CWAY.
The NAFDAC case is separate from LASCOPA’s inspection but highlights another challenge facing the brand: the unauthorised reuse of CWAY-branded containers by third parties.
As of September 24, 2026, LASCOPA had not announced a compliance deadline or date for a follow-up inspection.
