Bread Makers To Revisit Cassava Bread Initiative

The Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria has given the assurance that the cassava bread initiative will be revisited with a view to finding out why it is not working and what can be done to make it work.

The President, PBAN, Tosan Jemide, gave the indication at the maiden media briefing of the association in Lagos on Wednesday.

“We intend to work with the relevant authorities and stakeholders in the cassava flour project, which seems to have lost some steam,” he said.

He said that the cassava bread initiative had worked in other parts of the world, stressing that it was a good initiative and would benefit the government and the citizens of Nigeria if well implemented.

According to him, the association, which boasts of very knowledgeable and experienced self-starting entrepreneurs, is ready to collaborate with regulatory agencies in the food and beverage subsector to take the industry to greater heights.

He said, “The PBAN will pay particular attention to the quality of the bread her members produce for public consumption by working with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control and other regulatory bodies to ascertain the quality of what we churn out into the market. We shall ensure quality assurance with consumers’ health being paramount in our mind.

“The PBAN will ensure that the equipment used by our members is in line with international best practices and will comply with every extant environment and safety regulation to forestall emission of carbon into the atmosphere, thereby helping to control ozone layer depletion.”

Jemide promised that the association would collaborate with stakeholders to expose individuals and organisations that might circumvent the system for their personal gains, adding that the group would ensure that there was no dumping of unwholesome baking materials on the country.

He said the group would ensure sustainable professionalism in the bread baking business through training and retraining of workers in modern, safe and healthy ways.

He listed the challenges of the group as poor energy supply and lack of access to loans.

The Deputy President, PBAN, Bose Ladi-Ofolu, said that the government, which introduced the initiative as a way of curtailing the importation of wheat, a major ingredient in bread making, needed to guide operators on the quantity of cassava that should be introduced into the bread.

She said, “Wheat is used in making bread and if cassava is to be introduced into bread, it cannot be up to 40 per cent because that would be too much and it will no longer be bread.”