Kogi State government has imposed a levy on every loaf of bread sold in the state, stating that the decision was made to protect indigenous bakers.
The state chapter of the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria earlier said it received a memo from the state’s ministry of commerce imposing a levy “on each loaf of bread”, saying that the move would bring unbearable pains on its members.
Reacting to this, Commissioner for Information and Communications in the state, Kingsley Fanwo, expressed that the government imposed levy on every loaf of bread sold in the state in order to protect indigenous bakers from those “who bring bread to the state without paying any form of levy”.
Fanwo made this known in a statement o Friday, November 13, titled, ‘The Facts About The Bakery Levies’.
He stated;
The recent development was a measure taken to protect our Indigenous bakers and also protect our economy from the activities of bakers outside the state who bring their bread to Kogi without paying any form of levy.
No responsible government will want to watch her indigenous businesses lose the local market.
There has been continuous complaints from out indigenous bakers about the activities of external bakers who pack their bread to the state in trucks and sell without paying anything to the state government.
He added;
Also, poor sales by our bakers may lead to job losses, which is a situation we are determined to use legitimate means to avert.
We assure the Master Bakers of our policy and readiness to keep listening to them in order to smoothen relationships and factors aiding their production as bread consumers have nothing to fear.
