The Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria (PBAN) has said it will go on a four day warning strike from Thursday 21st July 2022.
The decision to strike was made by the Association, which is made up of owners, managers and partners of premium bakeries in Nigeria, as baking materials prices have risen in the country.
The entrepreneurs, who disclosed that it had become impossible to run bakeries in Nigeria, called on the federal government to stop charging a 15% wheat development levy on wheat imports.
Association President Emmanuel Onuorah and Public & Industrial Relations Officer Babalola Thomas also called on NAFDAC to revise downwards the N154,000 penalty imposed on bakeries for late renewal of certificates.
In addition to calling for several agencies to stop regulating the bread baking industry, PBAN also called on the federal government to give members access to grants and soft loans made available by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to small, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are assigned.
The statement read;
“Running a bakery in Nigeria has become all but impossible as the incessant rise in the price of baking materials and diesel has left the industry in a coma.
Bakeries usually run with huge losses and that is no longer sustainable.
“Bread is a staple and one of the cheapest take-out foods available for both rich and poor.
It is therefore up to the federal government to be aware of this and to ensure the survival and future viability of the industry.
“In order to ensure the survival of the premium bread baking industry in Nigeria we have decided to suspend services for an initial period of four days starting Thursday 21st July 2022 and unless the government intervenes we will escalate the duration of the withdrawal.
“Our efforts to ensure the survival of the industry resulted in a series of meetings in 2021 with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Abuja (FMITI) with our sister association in the bread baking industry.
Our best attempts to ensure that proposals we made to help the breadmaking industry survive did not produce the desired outcome.
“Therefore, the withdrawal of the service is the only avenue that we feel we can use to reach out to the federal government and Nigerians and let them know of our plight and how difficult it has been with the bread baking industry in Nigeria.”
