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NewsL-PRES warns of public health risks from unhygienic abattoirs in Taraba
The Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support, L-PRES, Project has expressed concern over the growing public health risks posed by unhygienic slaughterhouses and inadequate meat inspection practices across Taraba State.
Speaking on Tuesday in Jalingo during a capacity-building workshop for meat inspectors and abattoir managers, the State Coordinator of the World Bank-supported project, Hananiah Albert, emphasized the urgent need to uphold hygiene standards in the meat processing chain to prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases.
“The safety and quality of the meat we consume depend heavily on what happens before, during, and after slaughter.
“This is why meat inspection must be taken seriously, and abattoirs properly managed in line with national and international best practices to curb diseases such as tuberculosis, anthrax, and brucellosis”, Albert said.
He stressed that meat inspection and abattoir management were not merely technical tasks but essential pillars of food safety, disease control, and public health protection.
Albert lauded the Taraba State Government’s ongoing livestock reforms and explained that the training was designed to equip participants with standardized hygiene protocols and modern techniques for safer meat handling and processing.
“This training is a deliberate effort to empower frontline meat inspectors, veterinary officers, and abattoir workers with up-to-date knowledge to ensure uniformity, efficiency, and safety across abattoirs,” he stated.
Also speaking, the State Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Professor Nicholas Namessan, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to food safety and livestock development.
He noted that meat is one of the most widely consumed animal products in the state and that growing demand comes with added responsibilities.
“With our growing population and increasing urbanization, meat consumption is on the rise. But this also means we have a greater responsibility to ensure that what our people consume is hygienic, wholesome, and disease-free,” he said
Namessan urged participants to take the training seriously, describing them as key actors in promoting safe livestock consumption and public health.
He also reiterated the state government’s determination to expand the livestock value chain and strengthen its collaboration with L-PRES.
The exercise, which took place at Galaxy Spot, brought together meat inspectors and abattoir managers from all 16 local government areas of the state.
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The Food Basket Brewery expected to be inaugurated in October, this year is expected to gulp between N10 billion and N15 billion upon completion.
The Group Managing Director of Benue Investment and Property Company Limited, Dr. Raymond Asemakaha, disclosed this to journalists in Makurdi, the state capital, on Thursday.
Asemakaha who took delivery of 10 truck loads of machine equipment for the brewery said that the company had earlier received 16 truck loads of machines for the brewery out of the expected 50 trucks.
He expressed optimism that the brewery, along with the Benfruit and Juice factories, would commence full operations by October, creating at least 1,500 jobs to boost the state’s economy.
According to the CMD, the company has slated October, this year to inaugurate the three factories which included, the Food Basket Brewery, Benfruit, and Juice factories
He explained that the expected factories would be added to existing factories such as table water, nails, polythene and bakery factories to take off the growing multitude of graduates off the streets.
He said, “The Food Basket Brewery, Benfruit and Juice factories all will take off in October this year. We are projecting to employ not less than 1500 direct jobs across the three businesses.
“At the moment, Benue doesn’t have businesses, we are introducing these businesses so that it will help us boost our economy and take our youths out of the streets.”
He added, “To establish a standard brewery, about £5m to £10m was needed for the project and we have already started and there is no going back.”
When inaugurated, he projected that the brewery factory alone will generate between N400 million to N500 million monthly.
Asemakaha said that factories earlier established had provided 580 direct jobs and over 3000 indirect jobs for the people of the state.
He said, “We want our money to rotate within the state to boost our economy. The brewery is a big market. The profit of the Nigerian Brewery the last time I know was over 26 billion a month.
“At the end, Benue is one of the contributor in that market but we didn’t tap into it. Even if we are able to have within 50 to 60 per cent it should be able to return the cash flow within the state.
“The businesses that we have introduced, the bread, nails, water, polythene factories are to give our people jobs and we feel that is the best way to contribute to the development of our economy.”
Asemakaha thanked the state governor, Hyacinth Alia, for his support to BIPC and pledged the company’s commitment to the administration’s industrialisation agenda.
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The Bank of England on Thursday cut its key interest rate by a quarter point to four percent, the lowest level in 2.5 years, as it bids to boost a UK economy threatened by US tariffs.
Alongside the expected decision, the BoE forecast British economic growth to hit 1.25 percent this year, slightly better than the central bank’s previous estimate of one percent.
“The direct impact of US tariffs is milder than feared, but more general tariff-related uncertainty still weighs on sentiment,” the BoE said in a statement after studying data gathered by UK businesses.
London and Washington reached an agreement in May to cut levies of more than 10 percent imposed by US President Donald Trump on certain UK-made items imported by the United States, notably vehicles.
The quarter-point cut on Thursday was the BoE’s fifth such reduction since starting a trimming cycle in August 2024.
“Interest rates are still on a downward path, but any future rate cuts will need to be made gradually and carefully,” its governor, Andrew Bailey, said following Thursday’s decision.
The BoE voted 5-4 for the reduction, but not before an unprecedented second vote owing to a three-way split among its nine policymakers that prevented a necessary majority result.
Initially, four members voted for the reduction and four for no change. One member called for a larger cut of 0.50 percent, before switching in favour of a quarter-point drop, as voted for by Bailey.
It was the first time since the BoE became independent of the UK government in 1997 that a second vote had to be held.
“Looking ahead, interest rates are expected to be 3.5 percent in a year, which is slightly higher than before the (latest) meeting,” noted Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB trading group.
Expectations that the rate will remain at four percent for longer boosted the British pound.
The BoE’s main task is to keep Britain’s annual inflation rate at 2.0 percent, but the latest official data showed it had jumped unexpectedly to an 18-month high in June.
The Consumer Prices Index increased to 3.6 percent as motor fuel and food prices stayed high.
The BoE on Thursday predicted that the annual inflation rate would peak at four percent next month.
Latest official figures show that Britain’s economy unexpectedly contracted for a second month running in May, and UK unemployment is at a near four-year high of 4.7 percent.
This is largely down to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government increasing a UK business tax from April, the same month that the country became subject to Trump’s 10-percent baseline tariff on most goods.
Finance minister Rachel Reeves welcomed the latest rate cut, saying in a statement that it helps to “bring down the cost of mortgages and loans for families and businesses”.
The US Federal Reserve last week kept interest rates unchanged, defying strong political pressure from Trump to slash borrowing costs in a bid to boost the world’s biggest economy.
Asked about US tariffs following the decision, Fed Chair Jerome Powell told a press conference: “We’re still a ways away from seeing where things settle down.”
The European Central Bank is meanwhile widely expected to keep rates unchanged at its next meeting, with eurozone inflation around the ECB’s two-percent target.
But that could change, according to some economists, based on how Trump’s tariffs affect the single-currency bloc.
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Apple will invest an additional $100 billion in the United States, taking its total pledge to $600 billion over the next four years, a senior White House official said Wednesday.
The announcement, which was first reported by US media, will be officially made later Wednesday at 4:30 pm (2030 GMT) at a White House event with President Donald Trump.
In February, Apple said it would spend more than $500 billion in the United States and hire 20,000 people, with Trump quickly taking credit for the decision.
The Silicon Valley-based giant said it was its “largest-ever spend commitment,” which came as tech companies battle for dominance in developing artificial intelligence technology.
It builds on plans announced in 2021, when the company founded by Steve Jobs said that it would invest $430 billion in the US and add 20,000 jobs over the next five years.
Trump, who has pushed US companies to shift manufacturing home by slapping tariffs on trading partners, claimed that his administration was to thank for the investment.
Apple reported a quarterly profit of $23.4 billion in late July, topping forecasts despite facing higher costs due to Trump’s sweeping levies.
Tariffs are essentially a tax paid by companies importing goods to the United States. This means Apple is on the hook for tariffs on iPhones and other products or components it brings into the country from abroad.
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