Teen butchers make a killing in Lagos abattoir

It’s especially so in Lagos State, where a large number of school-age children work at various abattoirs, also hawking fresh meat on the streets.Until recently, butchery was not a likely option for many as most children would rather go for apprenticeships in mechanic workshops, tailoring, trading, bricklaying and other vocations. Learning butchery is fast-becoming a […]

It’s especially so in Lagos State, where a large number of school-age children work at various abattoirs, also hawking fresh meat on the streets.
Until recently, butchery was not a likely option for many as most children would rather go for apprenticeships in mechanic workshops, tailoring, trading, bricklaying and other vocations. Learning butchery is fast-becoming a popular choice.
Many children, who spoke to Weekly Trust at Odo-Eran Owutu Agric, Ikorodu and Agege abattoirs, however identified the lack of standard ways of preserving meat, as well as funds to start their own businesses on completion of their apprenticeship as some major issues.
Narrating how he became a butcher, 16-year-old Babatunde Yunusa said he was fascinated by knives and other tools of the trade, as well as practitioners of the vocation: “They also seem to be making a lot from the trade, so I naturally developed interest.”
Yunusa explained that: “I felt this is a business I can also do successfully and I made up my mind about it, and started learning it two years ago. I didn’t go to school at all because I was into farming even as a child in Kwara State.”
“The first thing I learnt is how to handle knives so that one doesn’t cut his fingers. After that, it is how to cut meat in different sizes. For instance, the size you cut for restaurants is different; you cut into portions which could be N50 or N100, while for other patrons it could be from N500.000 and above,” Yunusa said.
“I discovered that if I learn this butchery business very well, there is a huge potential for me and my parents to benefit in the nearest future. The money I make on a daily basis depends on the market situation and the size of meat hawked for instance, it could be N50,000 or N30,000 or N20,000  and I do make personal profit of about N2,000 to N5,000,” the young butcher added.
Yunusa says the business comes with several challenges, one of which is the cost of cows, which are conveyed to the South-West mainly from the northern parts of the country, a section of which is battling with insurgency. “The greatest challenge I noticed is funding because if there is money there is now business. For example, if I want to start selling on my own now, I will need about N300,000 because it’s not every day that one will be travelling to buy cows. So, the ideal is to buy more than one. Cows are now expensive due to the inability of people from the South-West to travel and buy them. These are the types of cows butchered at abattoirs if, but if it were to be party, they slaughter those cows that cost as low as N70,000 to N80,000. But because the cows butchered at abattoirs are for sale as beef, we have to killed the ones that are big – usually old cows – to attract customers,” Yunusa told Weekly Trust.
The young butcher also said if all the meat is not sold, preservation becomes a problem:“I think this problem can be addressed by providing cold rooms at abattoirs and government needs to help and also discard the idea of introducing automated butchery.
Another teen butcher Weekly Trust encountered is 15-year-old Olasunkanmi Dauda, who dropped out of school in Ondo State, who said his parents are based in Ibadan. He stays in Lagos with his boss. “For the few months I have been learning the job, even if my boss is not around, I can handle knives and cut meat into appropriate sizes for sale.  I have not started hawking, but my boss has told me that I will start soon,” Dauda said. He described butchery as a good business which parents should encourage children to learn, especially with the high rate of unemployment in the country.
“As far as I am concerned, butchery is a good job and I think it is also okay for me because I discovered that someone can get rich and make a life if he really faces the business,” the lad said. Dauda also talked about the difficult aspects of the trade: “How butchers balance money for unequal meat and they call it ‘sirah’ and it means when butchered cow is being shared among intending sellers, and one is bigger than the other, the person that is taking the bigger part would be asked to pay a certain amount of money to the person picking the smaller share.” 
Dauda also complained of finding the lingo at the abattoir difficult. “A mixture of Hausa and Yoruba is mostly spoken, and it could be confusing. There’s also a kind of code spoken among meat sellers to confuse buyers, or seek colleagues’ opinions discreetly. For instance, if a customer is pricing a portion of meat for N2,000, I can tell my partner to help me check it without the buyer knowing.” Other than that, he, Yunusa and many other teens like themselves are making a killing in Agege Abattoir.