Hundreds of bakers of local bread, popularly known as ‘Gurasa’ in Hausa, on Friday, staged a protest against rising price of flour in Kano State.
The protesters, mostly women, notably Gurasa bakers, (a local delicacy) staged the protest at Chediyar Yangurasa, in the Dala Local Government Area of the state.
The protesters wielded placards with various inscriptions written in both Hausa and English that included, “High costs of flour are our business”, “High flour prices unacceptable “, and “Flour price is too high in Nigeria; we need help,” among others.
Speaking to journalists during the protest, the chairperson of the Kano State Gurasa Bakers Association, Fatima Auwal, said more than half of the bakers have been sent out of business as a result of soaring prices of flour.
According to her, they had been protesting against the rising price of the commodity since when it reached N16,000 per bag but now, it is N43,000 per 50kg bag.
Though, all flour mills have increased prices, Auwal particularly mentioned IRS as the product they solely use to make Gurasa, calling on manufacturing company, BUA, to consider their plights to make the price affordable.
She said, “We are out here on the streets protesting to let the leaders know the situation we have found ourselves in at the moment.
“This has been our business for long but it is facing a great threat due to the rise in the price of flour.
“More than half of us have been sent out of business as we cannot afford to buy flour at this high price.
“We started protest since a 50kg bag of flour was N16,000, now it is N43,000 and we cannot afford it.
“We solely use IRS Flour produced by BUA, because it is the best for our production but the price is too high for us. Whenever we go to purchase flour, we get an increase of at least N1,500 on the price of a bag of flour.
“We therefore appeal to BUA, other flour mills, and the Federal Government to intervene and come to our rescue.
“We are in a very difficult situation, we need help. This is a small-scale business mostly run by women. Life is becoming more difficult for us. We hardly feed or send our children to school due to this hardship.
“Many have lost their capital. Only 25 percent of us are now in the business as many others have closed down due to lack of capital.”