The Kogi state government has imposed levy on every loaf of bread produced in the state.
According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the levy is to improve the internally-generated revenue (IGR).
Similarly, the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo, on Friday also explained the reason for the imposed levy.
According to him, the levy was aimed at protecting indigenous bakers from people outside the state who bring their bread to the State.
In his words,
“The recent letter was one of our strategies at protecting our indigenous bakers and also our economy from the activities of bakers outside the State who bring their bread to the State without paying any form of levy.
“No responsible government will sit by and watch her indigenous businesses lose the local market. 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.”
However, bakers in the state, on the platform of the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria (AMBCN) told TheCable that the bakers are against the levy.
