Bread bakers under the aegis of the Premium Bread Makers Association of Nigeria (PBMAN) have lamented the effects of the economic reforms on their industry.
The group’s President, Mr. Emmanuel Onuorah, expressed the views of its members during an interview on Arise TV.
Onuorah said the unification of the exchange rate has affected wheat and sugar imports, which have seen a significant increase.
He noted that sugar and wheat importers had always claimed they sourced FX from the parallel market. However, with the unification of the exchange rate, they now claimed they will increase prices as the exchange rate has been unified.
He said: “The top echelon of these millers during our meetings will tell us that they source FX from the parallel market, and we thought they were getting it at N750/$1 then. All of a sudden, President Tinubu’s administration has come and liberalized the whole thing and then the people (wheat and sugar importers) are now trying to say oh, we are getting this thing (FX) from an official source… what this tells us is that they are trying to put us in a cul-de-sac as bread makers and make us unprofitable and drive us out of business.”
He also spoke about the plan by wheat importers to increase the price of wheat and only put it on hold because of rising tensions.
He further said that sugar refiners have increased prices by N10,000 since April. Onourah narrated the impacted on production thus:
“In our costing, flour takes above 50% of the total cost template, followed by sugar, then energy comes close. The energy that was like 2% to 3% before now competes with sugar and from the look of things, it may surpass it”
He complained of the planned electricity tariff hike by the DisCos and how the effects it has on break makers.
“I spend about N7000 weekly on energy but now I do N4000. My capacity has dropped by 70% and coupled with this there is a planned electricity hike and a 7.5% VAT on diesel imports. How does a business survive in this?”
Quizzed on the new exchange rate by the customs, Mr. Emmanuel appealed to the President to take things easy and provide some incentives to Nigerians.
He responded; “The government should give back and avoid pushing Nigerians to the precipice in the course of these reforms”