World Vision Ghana has constructed and inaugurated two shea butter processing factories at Talensi District in the Upper East Region to empower rural women increase production and improve livelihoods.
The two factories with installed processing machines and equipment located at Kanabisi and Sheaga communities and each providing direct employment to over 100 women had been fully funded by the Australian Government through her High Commission to Ghana.
The two processing centres cost about US$52,000.00 which is equivalent to GH₵232,000.00.
The National Director, World Vision Ghana, Dickens Thunde, explained that the gesture came off on the background of a baseline study which revealed the abundance of shea trees an economic trees in the district and its extraction could empower the rural women in the area.
The estimated annual shea kernel production in Ghana is about 130.000 metric tonnes of which 54 percent is used locally and 6 percent exported.
Women in these communities have indigenous and skills in shea nut and shea butter processing, so we are supporting to train them on value addition, best practices in shea industry to enable them produce in commercial quantities and take advantage of the growing demand globally for shea butter, especially from Ghana.
Mr. Thunde revealed that the women group managing the Sheaga Shea butter processing has so far been able to produce and supply over a tonne valued at GH₵10,000.00of shea butter for export in 2019.
The National Director disclosed that his outfit had further established similar shea butter processing centres in the Bawku West and Garu Districts to economically and socially empower the women for improved household food security and income generation.
He said, “the project will continue to work with the district assembly and other relevant partners to develop effective markets for the products and its related value chain for sustainability of the centres.”
The Australian High Commissioner to Ghana Andrew Barnes, reiterated the commitment of the government of Australia to supporting sustainable and inclusive agriculture production, economic growth and food security in Ghana.
The high Commissioner said, this project aligns with Australian Aid policies by improving food production in northern Ghana, which, although is a relatively productive region, grapples with low agriculture productivity as result of climate change and unsustainable agricultural practices.
The District Chief Executive for the area Dr. Chrisipher Boatbil, lauded the efforts of the World Vision Ghana and the Australian Government for the investment in the district over the years and said it was complementing government’s efforts of ensuring economic and social empowerment for the women.
The DCE admonished the women to make good use of the facilities to increase their income generation and improve upon their livelihoods and their families particularly children.
The beneficiary women expressed gratitude to World Vision Ghana and its partners and said the facilities were a big relief to them and it would help to curb migration of women to the southern part especially during the dry season.
Enerstina Apuure, one of the beneficiaries indicated that unlike before when they use to process the shea butter manually, they could produce less than one bucket of shea nuts daily, however, the processing machine could enable her to process about five sacks of shea nuts a day.
Story filed by Emmanuel Akayeti
