Attitudes toward Service Innovations in Red Meat Industry and its Consumption Effects on Nigerian Consumers

Abstract

This paper focused on the Nigerian beef market, where meat safety is one of the most important issues of product quality for retailers, consumers, and the legal protection afforded consumers of the product. In today’s challenging economic climate, every business needs an organization-wide commitment to a comprehensive marketing strategy so it will stand out among the growing number of competitors competing for consumers. One of the ways of doing this is by providing quality products/services. The meat industry in Nigeria has failed to do this, thus this research was carried out to see how innovation can bring quality into this industry and some of the laws relating to consumer protection in Nigeria.

The total population in Nigeria was last recorded at 170,123,740 (million) people in July 2012 (Indexmundi.com). According to Osho and Asghar (2005) the national population figure by the Nigeria Census Board is 170 million; this not only make Nigeria one of the largest meat consumers in this region of the world, but also one of the largest meat producing countries in Africa. Nevertheless, the deplorable conditions of meat products from the abattoirs to consumers are issues that could not just be swept under the rug. This paper; therefore, explored how innovation can better improve the delivery of quality meat products to Nigeria consumers. Two hundred and fifty (250) meat consumers in Lagos, Nigeria were randomly chosen from Ikotun area; where an abattoir operates and were required to answer few questions in a carefully designed questionnaire so as obtain relevant information. Chi-Square Tests and Cross tab was used in analyzing the data. The findings shows that ?² =49.706, df=9, and p=.000; indicates that innovative steps of the meat handling improves quality of meat provided to the consumers and drastically reduces the problems presently associated with the industry; therefore, it is recommended that, the meat industry must be committed to supplying its customers with products that are safe and quality assured.

Keyword: Red Meat, Innovation, Consumer Legal Protection, Consumer Health.