The Rwandan government has announced a ban on cosmetic products used for lightening the skin.
“Love the skin you’re in”, is the message from Rwanda’s government in the fight against skin lightening products, reports eNCA.
Francois Uwinkindi of Rwanda’s Ministry of Health Cancer Unit said, “We are now putting more effort into educating people, going around and seizing those illegal products. We are joining those countries who are also in this fight against the use of those illegal skin-lightening cosmetics”.
Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, had earlier raised concerns about the growing use of skin-lightening products on social media.
On his verified Twitter handle last year, Rwanda had reacted to a call for the banning of the skin lightening products by tweeting, “Quite unhealthy among other things. Includes use of prohibited chemicals. MoH and RNP need to reign this in very quickly!”
It was reported that police in the country have already started confiscating thousands of products since the closing weeks of 2018.
But many users are not happy with this move. They say they have every right to choose the way they wish to look.
Many African countries have banned skin lightening products, but laws aren’t enforced and skin-whitening creams and soaps flood the markets in several African countries like Ghana, South Africa, Mali, Nigeria, etc.
American model, Blac Chyna was in Nigeria late last year to promote a new skin lightening cream, produced by Dencia.
Both the manufacturer and the ambassador were bashed by Nigerians on social media, that they had to disable comments on their Instagram pages.
