Why 206 bread bakeries shut down in Yobe

More than 50 factories have shut down in the Damaturu Local Government Area, while 206 were closed across Yobe State, Daily Trust on Sunday can report this.

As the impact of subsidy removal continues to affect businesses in Nigeria, over 206 bread factories have shut their doors in Yobe State.

Owners said they were suffocated by a chain of misfortune that include Boko Haram insurgency, COVID-19 pandemic and the naira policy, but finally strangulated by petrol subsidy removal.

In an interview with Daily Trust on Sunday, some of the bakers in Damaturu said they used to have over 50 factories that provide employment to at least 3,000 youths, but 70 per cent are now moribund.

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The chief executive officer of Arewa Special Bread, Damaturu, Mallam Bukar Kuru, said less than 20 bakeries were still working out of more than 50.

“If resuscitated, youths who used to work daily in these factories would start earning little things to survive. At least, this will relieve the government of some burden of youth restiveness.

“Some of us have sold properties and assets, including cars, to rehabilitate our dying factories, but the efforts were fruitless,” he said.

Kuru said he had eight vehicles for the factory and private use but they were all sold to offset the piling debt that finally crumbled the business.

He called on both the state and federal governments to look into their plight of bakers and support them at this time of economic crisis in the country.

“It may interest you to know that we are still paying tax to the government every month. I can show my revenue receipt of 30 years till date. Sometimes, the tax collectors would pity our situation and reduce the fee.

‘‘Government should intervene before the remaining bread factories will shut down as this will add to the number of unemployed persons and increase the crime rate in the society.

“We have been pushing to see Governor Mai Mala Buni on this issue so that he could help, but all our efforts proved abortive,” he said.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in 2022, Yobe State has recorded the highest underemployment rate of 30.0 per cent.

In view of that, the government must do the needful to save these factories from shutting down, especially as the state and the North East is gradually recovering from Boko Haram crisis.

Another bakery owner in Damaturu, Salihu Abdullahi Mai Mota, said he had been receiving applications from bakery workers laid off by the closure.

“People with experience in bakery are coming to this factory daily, asking me to employ them because they lost their jobs. But my bakery is small and I have no space to accommodate them,’’ he said.

He lamented that cost of production in the baking business was very high with very little profit, saying, “The exorbitant cost of production starts from wood, flour and sugar. Their prices have tripled. They increase each time you go to buy.”

Also, the chairman of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria, Yobe State chapter, Alhaji Manu Maibiredi, said that beside nature and bad economic policies that strangled bread bakery business, lack of government interventions played a major role.

“Many of us were struggling to survive inflation after the cashless policy that made things worse, then came petrol subsidy removal.

“The cost of doing business has become very high and customers have refused to adjust to the new price. Most of our customers still want to buy loaves of N100, N200, N300 or N500,’’ he lamented

Alhaji Manu said most of their members who gave up doing the business left for menial jobs outside the state.

‘‘As I am talking to you, some of them have migrated to the southern part of the country to struggle for livelihood,’’ he said.

‘‘We wrote letters to the chief of staff in the Government House, secretary to the state government, the Ministry of Wealth Creation, Empowerment and Employment Generation, yet nothing was done,’’ he added.

The chairman of the Bread Bakeries Association in Damaturu Local Government Area, Usman Abubakar, said many bakery owners who shut down in the city resorted to other businesses.

“Most of them were pushed out of the business as a result of the constant surge in the prices of flour, sugar, margarine and other ingredients.

‘‘Bakeries in Damaturu could no longer cope with the high cost of production, that’s why very few are operating now; and most of our members have lost their means of livelihood.

‘‘For instance, a bag of flour is now sold at N31,500 while sugar is N35,000, among other items; then you have to pay your labourers. When one combines the cost after production, one would realise that one ran at a lost,” he said.

He said his little capital could no long sustain the business due to cost of production and the little profit being generated.

‘‘We need a soft loan from the state or federal government to procure modern machines and maximise production cost. With the price of flour that increases weekly, we will wake up one day and realise that there’s no bread factory in Damaturu Local Government Area.

‘‘I lost over four vehicles in the last five years while trying to keep the business afloat,’’ he said

He hinted of an alleged move by some bakery owners in the city to resort to substandard ways of producing bread, all in a bid to continue the business.