BREAD could further go out of the reach of an average Nigerian as breadmakers lament rising electricity tariffs and poor power supply, impacting production costs.
President of Premium Bread Makers Association of Nigeria (PBAN), Emmanuel Onuorah, stated this on Friday, July 4, while assessing how the current economic reforms affect bakery business performance in the first half of 2025.
He said, “The President offered us a moratorium on the importation of wheat, dough, flour, and some other raw materials. This helped our production. However, the energy cost rise wiped all of them out.
“Energy costs for some of us in band A went up so high, and yet we can’t see the light. We had to resort to using diesel for our baking business. Can you imagine someone’s energy cost rising from N1 million to N15 million in a month because of Band A classification?” he said.
He stressed that despite the rising electricity costs, the supply had been poor, as most bakers had to rely on diesel to sustain their businesses.
He posited that the association had reached out to relevant electricity stakeholders such as Eko DisCo, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), but got no response.
“In my bakery, we have written to Eko DisCo, FCCPC, and NERC, but we have no response. We have been with Eko DisCos on this for the past three months, and they don’t even answer us. Electricity cost is wiping out our gains in business.
“You write to their customer care to explain how they arrived at the energy cost per kilowatt, yet no response. It’s discouraging for our business and the cost of production,” he added.
He noted that bread makers, under his leadership, were thinking out of the box, away from the electricity-grid supply, with discussion already advanced with a solar company.
He explained further that energy conservation was not easy in the breadmaking business as “mixers would keep running and other apparatus on bread production will keep running for production to happen.”
He expressed worry that the rise in tariff costs had failed to support Nigeria’s manufacturing sector, with power supply still epileptic.
“You pay for diesel, pay for maintenance of diesel, and pay for light that’s not supplied,” he stated.
Notably, the average price of premium-quality bread currently in Nigeria ranges from N1,000 to N2,500, with many middle-income earners struggling to buy as currency devaluation taking its toll on spending.
The ICIR reported that despite the pace of inflation easing to a 25-month low of 22.97 per cent in May, a recent report by Stanbic IBTC indicated that the cost of purchase increased in June.
This development, analysts say, was triggered largely by the rising cost of production and raw materials.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown a sharp drop in the inflation rates since the rebasing of the consumer price index earlier this year, but the prices of goods and services have yet to mirror that reality.
The Stanbic IBTC report noted that supplies were hampered in June, which some firms blamed on poor road conditions, as many roads in the country are notably in bad condition.
Harrison Edeh is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, always determined to drive advocacy for good governance through holding public officials and businesses accountable.