The Cassava Adding Value for Africa (C:AVA II) Nigeria team, recently hosted the executives of the Association of Master Bakers and Confectioneries of Nigeria (AMBCN), to evaluate the current status of High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) usage in the baking and confectionery industries.

Welcoming the executives of AMBCN and representatives of the Nigeria Cassava Processors and Marketers Association (NCAPMA), the C:AVA II Nigeria Country Manager, Professor Lateef Sanni, said that he was enthusiastic and delighted at meeting with the new executives of AMBCN. The Don, who is also the Dean, College of Food Science and Human Ecology (COLFHEC) of FUNAAB, added that one of the goals of C:AVA II Project was to facilitate the trade of bakers and confectioneries makers. He advised the newly-elected President of the Association to do more of regional activities that would facilitate trade and laudable achievements.

Speaking earlier, the C:AVA II Project Director, Professor Kolawole Adebayo, said that he was happy to be identified with the AMBCN, as he enumerated the regions where C:AVA II was operating, while assuring the AMBCN executives that much more could be done with cassava in Nigeria than other countries, for the fact that the country happened to be the largest producer of cassava in the world. He added that the inclusion of cassava flour in both bread and confectioneries had been proven to be more economical and profitable. Professor Adebayo, who doubles as the Director, Grants Management of the University, expressed the willingness of the C:AVA II Project, in conjunction with FUNAAB, to assist master bakers in enhancing the use of HQCF in the making of bread and other confectionery products as well as the provision of technical assistance.

Responding, the National President of AMBCN, Mr. Dominic Turi, thanked C:AVA II Project team for hosting the executives of AMBCN. He emphasised that the Association had achieved a lot through the support of the CAVA Project, such as in the training on HQCF inclusion in bread-making, as Mr. Turi reiterated that cassava bread had come to stay in Nigeria. At the meeting, the demonstration of 10 per cent HQCF inclusion in bread-making was held, at the FUNAAB Bakery.