The president of the Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria (PBAN), Engr. Onuorah Emmanuel, has raised the alarm over the worsening economic conditions crippling the baking industry.

He revealed that more than half of bakeries belonging to his members alone have shut down in recent years due to skyrocketing production costs, high interest rates, and insecurity.

Speaking during the PBAN Day Out 2025 held in Lagos with the theme: “The Business of Baking: Pathways to Profit, Productivity and Growth,” Emmanuel painted a bleak picture of the sector, lamenting that bakers are battling multiple economic pressures that threaten their survival and the livelihoods of thousands of Nigerians.

He stated that after the COVID-19 pandemic, most bakery owners found it extremely difficult to

“The finances are stifling us; interest rates are astronomical. You can’t go to the bank and get a single-digit loan. All their loans are above 30 per cent. How does any business survive with that?” he asked.

According to the PBAN President, the breadmaking industry has suffered massive contraction since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Out of over 140,000 bakeries operating before 2020, he said, less than 60,000 remain functional today.

“This is not just a baker’s problem. The mortality rate cuts across all manufacturing concerns in Nigeria. The cost of doing business has become unbearable,” Emmanuel said.

The PBAN leader highlighted Nigeria’s overwhelming dependence on imported raw materials as a major setback to sustainable bread production.

“Ninety-eight percent of the wheat we use in Nigeria is imported. We require about 5.1 million metric tons annually, but Nigeria produces only around 300,000 metric tons. So where is backward integration? How will Nigerians get jobs?” he queried.

He commended President Bola Tinubu for lifting the 15% wheat import duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) on wheat and grains — a decision he said came after consistent advocacy from PBAN and other stakeholders.

“That intervention helped stabilize bread prices. Before then, we were changing prices almost four times in a month just to stay afloat. Many of us had to lay off workers to remain in business,” he added.

Emmanuel identified Nigeria’s energy crisis and insecurity as twin challenges choking productivity in the baking sector.

“We rely on diesel to run our operations because public power supply is unreliable. Recently, our electricity tariff was increased by over 2,000% for Band A users, yet the voltage remains low. We are exploring solar alternatives, but they are still unaffordable for most of our members,” he explained.

He also lamented that insecurity in the northern region — Nigeria’s agricultural heartland — has crippled local wheat production efforts.

“Farmers can’t go to their farms without paying tolls to bandits or terrorists. How can we talk about backward integration when people risk their lives just to plant? The government must fix security because if you fix security, you fix everything,” Emmanuel stated.

He criticized what he described as the government’s obsession with taxation amid economic stagnation.

“Taxation doesn’t grow an economy. It only lies in the pockets of politicians. You can only tax wealth after you have created it. For now, excessive taxation is diminishing productivity and driving businesses into collapse,” he said.

Mrs. Adijatu Olopade, Chairperson of the PBAN Planning Committee, explained that this year’s edition of the “PBAN Day Out” was designed to help members navigate the difficult business terrain through training, innovation, and collaboration.

“This is the third edition of our conference. The previous ones were more of social gatherings, but this year we wanted to focus on productivity and profitability,” Olopade said.

“Many bakeries are shutting down because they don’t know how to adapt when the terrain is tough. That’s why we came up with this year’s theme — ‘The Business of Baking: Pathways to Profit, Productivity and Growth.’”

One of the facilitators at the event and founder of Cakeflair and Bourffe Bakeries Limited, Juliet Aigbe recalled how she lost over N6m as a bakery operator because she was focused on quality and not profit.

She stated that the continued dependence on imported wheat and other baking ingredients is not helping in the backward integration drive. (Daily Sex)