Accra Abattoir In Financial Trouble

The state of the art Accra Abattoir Company needs about 3.5 billion Cedis to turn its operations around and break even. The three-year old company is currently insolvent to the tune of over one billion cedis. The Managing Director, Emmanuel Simpson says the company's operating costs, especially bills for water and electricity, have risen drastically since the recent increase in tariffs.

Speaking during a tour of the company by a Deputy Minister for Presidential Affairs, Edward Osei-Kweku, Mr. Simpson said the company is operating at 20 percent of its installed capacity.

Located off the Spintex Road, at Community 18 Tema, the abattoir has failed to attract butchers who were operating from the old Slaughter House at James Town. Butchers located in Accra have persistently refused to take their animals to the abattoir for slaughter, citing the distance as a major disincentive. Mr. Simpson says a report on the review of operations of the abattoir has been submitted to government for study.

The government holds 51.36 per cent shares in the abattoir, SSNIT, 36.6 per cent, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly 7.19 per cent, MASAI 5.37 per cent and the Ghana Butchers Association 0.02 per cent. Meanwhile, butchers at the Abattoir have not been paid their salaries for almost five months. The workers claim management staff of the company have however been paid.

A source told the Ghana News Agency that the workers have been promised something, but they do not know when it will be paid. Some of workers maintain that they have not embarked on an industrial action because they want the matter resolved amicably.

Investors in the company have indicated that the abattoir is supposed to be a social service and not a profit-making corporation, and therefore only needs to break even so that it covers its operating costs. The workers however say the performance of the company or the purpose for which it was initially established does not mean that the disenchanted workers must not be paid.