The Nigerian Master Bakers Association (NMBA) has been divided over claims by a section of it that the Federal Government’s approach to the disbursement of the N2.2 billion Cassava Bread Fund (CBF) is faulty.
Jacob Adejorin, chairman, Lagos State chapter of NMBA, had said in a statement in a national newspaper that the N14 million being disbursed to each beneficiary through the Ministry of Agriculture and Bank of Industry (BoI) was too much to benefit many bakers and that N5 million would have been a better amount to reach many more bakers. He also claimed that no master baker in Lagos has enjoyed the facility since 2013, which led to agitations by members of the association on the need for review.
“With over 50,000 master bakers in over 5,000 bakeries in Lagos, only 34 have been trained and only four selected as beneficiaries of the fund,” stressed Adejorin. This, he said, was grossly inadequate considering the fact that Lagos houses more than 50 percent of all master bakers in the country. However, the national chairman of NMBA, Simeon Abanulor, said that the association’s official data show that Kano State has the highest number of master bakers in Nigeria, thereby putting Adejorin’s public statements and their motive in question.
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In a counter reaction to those claims, the NMBA national chairman, Simeon Abanulor, said that well over 2,000 bakers have been trained and 171 bakers across the nation are beneficiaries. “Today, 96 master bakers across the country have received their equipment, the balance of the remaining equipment has not been received because of delays by the Bank of Industry (BoI), but the bank has promised that before the end of this week or early next week, they will mobilise our suppliers,” he explained.
The 96 master bakers who have received their equipment are spread across the six geopolitical zones of the country, including Lagos State, where four of the equipment received so far went to some beneficiaries. According to him, the equipment received so far are 2,000 capacity rotary ovens, 2,000 capacity spiral mixers, 80KVA Mikano generators, and deep freezers and working capital of N1 million for each beneficiary are now being awaited. In his own reaction, Jude Okafor, national publicity secretary of NMBA, also countered the association’s Lagos State chapter boss, saying that the N5 million naira suggested by him (Adejare) cannot buy even a single rotary oven, which costs N7 million. According to Okafor, “A spiral mixer costs between N2.5 and N4 million and all these equipment cannot run without a standby generator, resulting in a cumulative cost of N14 million to secure them, including a N1 million working capital.”
