It is 3 pm at the busy Atinga Junction in Kumasi, Ghana. The sun is scorching hot, and traffic is heavy at the junction as people strive go about their different endeavors. Amidst all the hustle of the city, a fragrant smell wafts in the air. Two young men are busy on a grill roasting chicken, which makes the passengers turn their heads as they walk.
The chicken grilling is part of an initiative by of the Rockland-2SCALE partnership to enhance the consumption of chicken precuts by low-income consumers in Ghana to enhance nutrition. The grilled chicken precuts are commonly known by the name Akoko Tasty which is derived from the Twi word for chicken and tasty to denote the quality of the meat. Typically, chicken is deemed as quite expensive, but the grilling model aims at giving low-income consumers the ability to consume quality and nutritious poultry products at an affordable rate. For as low as 5 cedis, people can enjoy quality grilled chicken.
One of the things that was behind the launch of Akoko Tasty was the fact that a lot of people patronise imported chicken while we have quality chicken here in Ghana. So, we came up with the idea of grilled local chicken that can be bought by the masses according to the price they have. By also having multiple youth manning the grilling stations in the villages, access to nutritious poultry is also enhanced for low-income consumers,