Lagos State has taken steps to sanitise the red meat value chain, as well as ensure consumption of healthy and wholesome red meat.
Commissioner for Agriculture Ms. Abisola Olusanya stated this in Alausa at the launch of the last Mile Meat Shops and Butchers’ Academy.
Ms. Olusanya said the initiative would increase residents’ confidence in what they consume, and also provide standard facilities to encourage youths come into the space.
The commissioner added that the initiative was also for residents to embrace butchery and correct the erroneous impression that the profession is reserved for the unenlightened.
Olusanya noted that the 20 feet containers designed as pilot scheme for the initiative can be easily transferred across different locations.
She said: “Each meat shop is to be manned by four youths allocated a cow slaughtered at approved government abattoirs and brought to them under hygienic conditions and processes”.
The commissioner thus sought collaboration with the private sector to enlarge the scheme, expressing the hope to increase the containers to 40ft.
She also hinted that the Cattle feed lot project is ongoing and will be delivered soon.
Chairman of the Lagos House of Assembly Committee on Agriculture, Emmanuel Olotu, hailed the ministry for introducing ideas that will bring food and comfort to residents. He urged the Butchers’ Association to practice what they learnt during training at the Academy.
Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of Butchers Association, Alhaji Kazeem Bakare, thanked the government for initiating the project, which he described as ‘innovation’ to his members. He said the nature and value of cows slaughtered now is different from many years back.
Bakare promised that the association will embrace the new idea for safe handling of meat, noting that the initiative will bring back members who have left the job.
