Business Post Contributor
By Ashemiriogwa Emmanuel
The Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria (AMBCN) has lamented the incessant increase in the price of flour and other baking materials, threatening to go on strike if the federal government fails to address the situation.
The National President of the association, Mr Mansur Umar, disclosed this on Thursday during the group’s National Executive Council meeting held in Abuja.
He said that despite the high cost of baking materials and multiple taxes, the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has further worsened the plight of Nigerian bakers with their increased tariff regime.
According to him, the current issue has forced them to increase the prices of their products by 30 per cent across the board, adding that some of their members have been forced out of business.
“At this time, most of our baking materials have risen to a level where appropriate bakery products pricing has become a very serious challenge.
“Our plea for the streamlining of our products regulations has not been heeded to. Instead, the NAFDAC tariff regime has once again been jerked up. It becomes worrisome if the managers of our economy actually wish the bakery industry to remain or go extinct,” Mr Umar lamented.
He warned that if the increasing cost of bakery ingredients was not checked urgently, bakers across the nation may go into extinction.
The bakers, therefore, issued a two-week ultimatum, starting from September 23, to the federal government to urgently look into the issue.
Mr Umar said that if the FG does not do so after the expiration ultimatum, “we will direct our members to withdraw their services across the country for one week.”
Encouraging Nigerian bakers, he said, “We have no other industry than this, so we must fight with all we have to keep the industry alive.”
