Butchers abandon GHC1.2m newly constructed abattoir over distance and location

Butchers in the Bolgatanga Municipality and its environs have refused to use a well-furnished, ultra-modern abattoir, to slaughter and dress animals for sale, stating reasons of long distance to the facility and location.

The facility, valued at GH¢1.2 million, was constructed and commissioned in 2018, to enhance the quality and hygienic condition under which meat was processed and sold in the market.

The facility is built at Yorogo and has a bio-digester for the conversion of waste material into biogas.

It also boasts of the right equipment for slaughtering and processing of animals, offices, a pavilion and washrooms for the staff and workers and a kraal for detaining the animals until they were examined by veterinary officers before slaughtering.

The facility was expected to serve as a new ground for butchers in the Bolgatanga Municipality and other nearby districts in the region for slaughtering and processing animals before taking the meat to the market for sale, thus relieving the butchers of the old dilapidated abattoir located in the Bolgatanga township.

But the butchers have indicated that the place is far from the market and there is huge cost involved in using the facility to slaughter and process meat.

Mr Timothy Timbil, the Secretary of the Bolgatanga Butchers Association, revealed that in 2016, officials from the World Bank conducted a visibility study to find out where the abattoir could be constructed to yield the needed results.

He said though the leadership of the association had spoken to the butchers to go to the place, they were against moving to the new site, citing high transportation and processing cost as reasons.

They also accused the Assembly of deliberately relocating the construction site and deviating from what was originally agreed by both the Municipal Assembly and the butchers.

He said: “It was agreed by both the Assembly and us, the Butchers, that the new abattoir should either be constructed at where we are currently operating or it should be taken to the defunct meat factory at Zuarungu in the Bolgatanga East District, but the Assembly changed the location to Yorogo without telling us anything”.

Meanwhile, Tangoba Abayage, the Upper East Regional Minister, has called on the butchers to use the well equipped, new abattoir to ensure optimum quality of the meat they produce for the market.

She said using the new abattoir will ensure that the health of consumers is not put at risk.

Madam Abayage made the call when she visited the new facility as part of a working visit of the Bolgatanga Municipality.