The ECOWAS Commission and NANTS to Commission a Modern Integrated Small-Scale Abattoir in Abuja

           

      The first modern integrated slaughterhouse in Abuja ©ARAA

The slaughterhouse is one of the key outcomes of the Innovative Livestock and Meat Value Chain Development Investment Project in Nigeria, co-funded by the ECOWAS Commission and the Swiss Development Cooperation.

It is part of the Livestock Marketing Support Program in West Africa (PACBAO) and has been implemented since 2018 under the coordination of the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food ( ARAA) of ECOWAS to promote access for breeders to profitable markets, thus making livestock breeding more attractive, a source of jobs and income, particularly for young people and women in West Africa.

The infrastructure is located at Giri - Gwagwalada Area Council, Abuja (Nigeria) and has facilities such as barns, slaughter box, evisceration technology, weighbridge, veterinary surgeries, processing, 24 hour treated water well, packing unit, 25 ton cold room, refrigerated vans, meat washing unit, meat roasting unit, preparation unit animal skin, biodigesters, a safety house, etc. 

It also has a training center for regular capacity building of butchers and other actors in the meat and livestock sector. In addition, the slaughterhouse has waste processing technology, which transforms all waste into biogas and liquid fertilizer. The biogas is then used to roast and prepare the skin of the animals, unlike the use of motor tires, which have been implicated and associated with carcinogens.

With the provision of more space to the project by the Gwagwalada Area Council and the Federal Capital Territory Administration, the expectation of the ECOWAS Commission is to see this innovative infrastructure gradually transform into a huge facility , with profitable and creative jobs for young people (men and women) with a view to ensuring its sustainability.

The model, which is new, will be capitalized and replicated as a good practice for scaling up in other ECOWAS member states as part of the modernization of livestock and meat trade.

Through this project, the ECOWAS Commission and NANTS aim to find sustainable solutions to stakeholder challenges in the livestock sub-sector, particularly in the livestock and meat value chains.

 

It is worth mentioning that NANTS is also starting a milk production and processing plant in the FCT thanks to the ECOWAS Commission. We warmly welcome these advances in development and encourage partners to collaborate on such actions that strengthen the employability of women and youth as a means of reducing insecurity and poverty in the region.