Kogi State Information and Communications Commissioner Kingsley Fanwo said yesterday that the newly imposed bread levy in the state was to protect indigenous bakers from those “who bring bread to the state without paying any form of levy.”
The Nation reports that, Fanwo in a statement in Lokoja said no responsible government would “sit by and watch her indigenous businesses lose the local market.”
He added: “Our indigenous bakers have complained bitterly about the activities of external bakers who packed their bread to the state in trucks and sell without paying anything to the state government.
“Poor sales by our bakers may lead to job losses, a situation we are determined to use legitimate means to avert.
“We assure the Master Bakers of our open-door policy and our readiness to keep listening to them in order to smoothen relationships and factors aiding their production as bread consumers have nothing to fear.”
The state chapter of the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria had said it received a memo from the state’s ministry of commerce imposing a levy “on each loaf of bread”. The association said the move would bring unbearable pains on its members.