Economy
SOME residents of Kubwa on Wednesday decried the high cost of bread, one of Nigeria’s staple food.
The residents who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said it was unfortunate that `bread which used to be poor man’s food now seems to be only for the rich’.
Mr Alabi Oluwatosin, the acting manager of American Snacks, located at Kubwa, attributed the increase in the price of bread to inflation.
“Many citizens depend on bread for their daily survival unfortunately due to it is becoming increasingly expensive for them.
“One of the challenges we the bakers face today is dealing with the prices of goods in the market.
“We now buy flour at the cost of N28, 000 per bag as against N22, 000 per bag last year.
“The prices of other ingredients used in baking bread such as sugar, butter, yeast and milk are on the high side, ” he said.
According to him presently bakers were not making profits as inflation erodes what should have been their profits.
Miss Deborah Oluwafemi, a consumer, told NAN at the present rate of increase in price, bread will soon be out of the reach of civil servants.
“An average loaf of bread costs N800 compared to when it was sold at N400. It is not nice, the economy is bad and people’s salaries aren’t increasing,” she said.
Mr Mmerichukwu Otuechere, a baker told NAN that his business had not been moving well following the continued rise in the cost of baking materials.
“Honestly, we in the bakery industry are not finding things easy. We are therefore calling on the Federal Government to come to our aid
“Many bakers will soon go out of business due to high cost of materials we use in baking.
“I used to make some profits in this business but now I can hardly recover my expenditure after sales, not to talk of making profits.
“ Before I employed five persons in this business but now I retained only two persons because I cannot afford their salaries,” Otuechere said. (NAN)
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Tags: Alabi Oluwatosin American Snacks Mmerichukwu Otuechere
