By Femi Akinola and Faridat Salifu
Recent increase in the prices of bread has put the item beyond the reach of the low income earning consumers, artisans, and the ordinary Nigerians, NatureNews can authoritatively report.
Investigations into the cause of high price of bread in the country goes beyond high cost of a bag of flour and sugar but abandonment of the cassava bread initiated by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration before he bowed out of office.
It was on record that when the former president was at the helm of affairs in Nigeria, his administration gave a mandatory directive for bakers to include 10% of cassava flour in the production of bread and all other flour based products but the saboteurs killed the laudable idea.
Our findings showed that the Obasanjo’s efforts to ensure Nigeria start producing cassava bread was frustrated before it could make any significant impact.
The failure of the initiative, checks revealed, was as a result of greed on some Nigerians, particularly importers of wheat, majority who enjoy tariff waivers as well as flour millers and bakers alike who are not keen on improving local contents of their products.
Bread is a staple food which many families eat every morning for breakfast.
NatureNews survey found out that because of the triple increase in the price of bread, the staple food has disappeared from the menu of many families that cannot afford to buy bread at the new price.
A single mother of five, Memunat Ladidi, in an interview with NatureNews shows a great concern on the hike in price of bread noting that the money she used in buying two loaves of bread before for her family to eat for breakfast can now only buy one which is totally not enough for her children.
Joseph Adamson explained that he love to eat bread and he usually eat it once a day but has adjusted these days due to the high price of bread.
According to Joseph, he has been buying smaller loaf of bread in the past weeks but he found out that the smaller size don’t satisfy his hunger.
Like the consumers, bread sellers are also feeling the pinch because their sales have dropped drastically.
Jumai Ahmed, a bread seller at Lugbe area of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Abuja, complained that she could not sell five loaves of bread she brought from a bakery after two days unlike before, when she would have sold more.
Aminat Yaro, another bread seller in Gwarimpa area of the FCT, also expressed worry over how her daily sales have dwindled in the couple of weeks over hike in the price of bread. She said many bread consumers who are her customers, have adjusted their pockets due to the high price of bread.
According to her, majority of her customers now opted for yam tubers believing that this will serve them well than bread.
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Although Nigerians are not protesting publicly over hike in price of bread but they are angry that government is not doing anything to bring down the price of bread.
Sulaimon Badru, a tricycle operator in Ikeja, capital of Lagos State, is angry that government has not been able to bring down prices of the commodities anytime they are increased.
He wondered why bread which used to be the food consumed by low and average income earners has suddenly become the food for high income earners.
Sulaimon described the current price adjustment of bread as untimely, coming out at a time the cost of living is very high and expressed the fear that it would worsen economic condition of the poor.
He opined that low income earners like him would bear the brunt of the new price of bread which came at a time when price of a bag of rice and petroleum products like diesel as kerosene have been increased.
Reacting to the high cost of bread, Vivian Edogbayan, a bread baker in Abuja, expressed her dissatisfaction over the cost of production of bread.
According to her, the price of a bag of flour has jumped from N40,000 to N62,000, while the price of Mudu has also jumped from N800 to N1,800.
In addition, she said sugar that was sold for N50,000 per bag towards end of last year, now sold for over N90,000. She made mention of increase in the price of other ingredients like butter, salt, and other items that are inevitable in production of bread as having impact on the outcome of the price of bread.
”It is very challenging for us bread bakers to run the this baking business effectively, ” Vivian said. She urged the government to intervein and save many entrepreneurs from packing up their business in the face of economic uncertainty.
In the mean time, the Masters Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria (MBCN), has explained that the association increased prices of bread after the several attempts to intimate the government of its members plight while attempting to produce cheap bread for the citizenry but the government appeared not bothered about their challenges, hence their decision to stop production on February 27, 2024.
Alhaji Abanishe Braimah is a leading bread baker in Lagos. While discussing high price of bread with NatureNews, he said the umbrella association of bread bakers and caterers had appealed to the government to intervene and bring down the price of flour and sugar that are the main ingredients in producing bread.
Abanishe explained that the association also met times without number with flour millers on the possibility of reducing the high price of bread but their meetings with flour millers didn’t yield any good result.
”The price adjustment on the various sizes of bread became imperative as a result of the sharp increases placed on flour and sugar by local manufacturers,” he emphasized.
Our findings revealed further that the increase in the cost of flour equally affected other confectioneries like cake, chin-chin, fish roll, puff-puff and egg pies.
For example, in Lagos, a small pack of chin-chin that used to be sold for N50 is now N100. Loaf of bread that is sold for N600 in the recent past is now sold for N1,000 while those sold for N800 before not sold for N1,6400 upward depending on the brand.
