Comply with regulatory standards, ex-NAFDAC director urges breadmakers

A former Director, Food Registration and Regulatory Affairs at the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Rev. William Effiok, has urged breadmakers under the aegis of the Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria to be prepared for better business opportunities in 2024 by complying with regulatory standards.

Effiok stated this on Sunday in Lagos at the 2023 Day Out of Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria, bringing together critical stakeholders in the baking industry to map out solutions to the nagging problems of bread baking particularly given the economic downturn afflicting the country’s manufacturing sector. The PBAN was aiming to tackle the challenges confronting the baking industry.

“Meeting regulatory requirements helps to maintain quality and give consumers healthy and safe products for consumption. Allowing quackery and sharp practices among breadmakers will cripple genuine operators among the PBAN members. There is a need for breadmakers to put structure in place to curb unwholesome practices,” Effiok said while speaking on the theme, “Overcoming business challenges in the baking industry under harsh economic realities.”
Also speaking, a Director of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition of NAFDAC, Mrs. Eva Edwards, reiterated the agency’s commitment to ensuring the standards and quality of its regulated products.

She noted that the business environment is experiencing some challenges, which includes fuel subsidy removal, exchange rates, and infrastructure, among others, threatening business sustainability among other things.
“Producers of NAFDAC-regulated products must understand that safety, standards, and quality are not negotiable, despite all the challenges confronting them,” she said.
Edwards said that NAFDAC, under the leadership of the incumbent Director General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, was concerned with the challenges posed by the factors listed above and had introduced some intervention measures to ease the burden on the stakeholders.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, PBAN President, Engr. Emmanuel Onuorah said the challenges of being a breadmaker in Nigeria are quite enormous and very tasking with constant drops in their capacity and diminishing margins.

Onuorah noted that the cost far outstrips revenue, thereby leading to most of the bread producers running at a loss or barely surviving.

“We more often than not inadvertently keep recapitalizing our businesses to remain afloat, this is for those that have the capital outlay, while most bakeries that cannot inject fresh funds into their businesses shut down.

“The main reason for our gathering here today is to interrogate and find solutions to our challenges as an industry from the regulators and other technical and commercial perspectives,” he said.