Engineer Onuorah Emmanuel, president of the Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria (PBAN), has expressed concern about the deteriorating economic circumstances that are severely harming the baking sector. He disclosed that rising manufacturing costs, high lending rates, and insecurity have caused more than half of his members’ bakeries to close in recent years.Speaking at the PBAN Day Out 2025 in Lagos, which had as its theme “The Business of Baking: Pathways to Profit, Productivity and Growth,” Emmanuel painted a dismal picture of the industry, bemoaning the numerous economic pressures that bakers must contend with in order to survive and provide for thousands of Nigerians. He said that following the COVID-19 outbreak, the majority of bakery owners had a very hard timeInterest rates are outrageous, and our finances are suffocating us. A single-digit loan cannot be obtained at a bank. Every loan they have is more than thirty percent. He questioned, “How does any business survive with that?” The PBAN President claims that since the COVID-19 outbreak, the breadmaking sector has experienced a significant decline.
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