By Our Correspondent
The Lagos State Government has inaugurated the `Last Mile Meat Shops and Butchers Academy’, thus revamping sales of red meat under improved hygienic conditions.
Ms Abisola Olusanya, Commissioner for Agriculture opened the butcher academy, on Monday, at Alausa, Lagos.
Olusanya said the initiative aims to give residents confidence in what they consume while making it presentable with standard facilities to encourage youth participation in the industry.
She noted that the essence was for residents to embrace butchery. It is also to correct the erroneous impression that butchering is reserved only for the illiterate.
The commissioner said the 20-foot containers designed for the pilot scheme could be easily transferred from one location to another.
According to her, four persons will man each meat shop, get one slaughtered cow from Agege Abattoir.
She, therefore, called for collaboration with the private sector to expand the scheme.
Olusanya noted that the ministry started with 20-foot containers and hope to increase to 40-foot containers soon.
Reflecting on history of the initiative, the commissioner explained that it was part of the 2021 Agriculture Roadmap.
”Initially, the plan was to have 20 meat shops, but we reduced it to five for the pilot scheme.
”The journey towards overhauling the ministry began during the tenure of the former Commissioner and now the Oba of Oniru Land, Oba Gbolahan Lawal.
”Overhaul in the transportation sector led to the introduction of the Eko Meat Van. It thus ended the era of conveying meat through unwholesome practices,” the cmssioner said.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Lagos House of Assembly Committee on Agriculture, Olotu Ojo Emmanuel, commended the ministry for introducing the ideas.
Emmanuel said the idea would bring food and comfort to the doorsteps of residents.
He urged the Butchers Association to ensure they put into practice what they learned during training at the Butchers Academy.
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Also speaking, Dr Oluwarotimi Fashola, Special Adviser to the Governor on Agriculture, said the initiative ”is a quality control measure to give value for money”.
He assured that all the meat shops would sell in kilogrammes for uniformity.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr Emmanuel Audu, described the event as groundbreaking. He emphasised that issues around meat consumption are important for human existence.
Audu also said food safety could not be overlooked. He recalled that the origins of COVID-19 in China were linked to unhygienic food handling practices.
The PS further said that the initiative was to assist in value chains in meat distribution, addressing safety and quality with the launch.
Audu concluded that the ‘Last Mile Meat’ shops represented a new dimension, especially with youth involvement in the process and expressed hope that the project would receive full acceptance by Lagos residents.
In his goodwill message, the Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of Butchers Association, Alhaji Kazeem Bakare, thanked the Lagos State Government for initiating the project, describing it as an innovation for his members.
He said that the nature and value of cows slaughtered now are different from those many years back.
According to him, the Butchers Association will embrace the new idea for safe handling of cow meat in the state, promising that it will bring back some members who have left the job for Okada and Marwa.
Bakare urged other states in the country to embrace the innovation to restore sanity in meat handling among their residents.
TheNewsZenith reports that the Last Mile Meat Shops are located in the Ijeh area of Dolphin Estate, Surulere, and Mushin.
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