The Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria (AMBCN) has protested the abandonment of cassava bread development programme. This is even as the association bemoaned the high cost of sugar and flour in Nigeria in comparison to other African countries
AMBCN also mandated the Federal Government to immediately halt the collection of the 15 percent levy on wheat importation.
The bakers, who marched through some major streets in Asaba, the Delta State capital, were armed with placards with different inscriptions such as
“Notice of Imminent Bakers Services Withdrawn is Hereby Served”, FG Save Our Industry From Total Collapse, We Are The Second Largest Employers of Labour After FG”, 50 kg Flour in Tanzania is N4, 500, But in Nigeria, it is N11,000″.
While demanding for plans towards the empowerment of 20,000 master bakers from an accumulated fund with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), they lamented that six years on, the initiative had failed as all the components of the programme had been abandoned, even as the bakers were still made to pay the N1, 000 levy.
The national secretary of the association, Jude Okafor while speaking during the rpotest recalled that the levy, which was introduced in 2012, was domiciled at the CBN for the purpose of development of cassava bread.
“The fund was to be used to for the development of cassava bread which includes training, equipping of 5,000 bakers, six in each of the 774 local councils in the country.
“The terminal date for the first period is 2016; as we speak, only 1,584 bakers have been trained, only 151 bakers have been partially equipped in a very unacceptable circumstances which even grossly violated the disadvantageous MoU entered between the Ministry of Agriculture and Bank of Industry.”
Okafor called on the Federal Government to put measures in place to ensure the reduction in the prices of the commodities in consonance with the present exchange rate of naira to the dollar and high cost of diesel which were the factors that influenced the increase then.
