The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with the Global Shea Alliance (GSA), a network of local and international actors in the shea industry, has injected a US$13 million to boost the sector.
The package is meant for the implementation of a five-year project, dubbed: “GSA Sustainable Shea Initiative” which is expected to increase the income of shea collectors by over US$3.5 million.
Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Nigeria, are the six beneficiary countries in Africa.
By the project, the annual export value of shea is projected to hit US$132 million, which would be geared towards facilitating 440 thousand tons of shea products.
The USAID/West Africa Regional Economic Growth Office Director, Dr. Mary Hobbs, and the GSA President, Konate Moumouni, jointly launched the project in Tamale.
Dr. Hobbs said under the project, the GSA will liaise with 25 private sector partners and about 250 women shea cooperatives in the beneficiary countries.
This, according to her, will augment promotional and sustainability activities through which 250 warehouses will be built.
She also announced that, over 130 thousand women shea collectors would benefit from capacity building workshops.
“Investing and supporting the growth of the shea industry is one means of helping to improve incomes for women and their families”, Dr. Hobbs stated.
She however admitted that, some bottlenecks needed to be addressed to improve the shea industry value chain system. She underscored the need for enough publicity on the health benefits of the products.
“Despite growth in the use of shea in both cosmetics and the food industry, the culinary and health benefits of using shea are still not widely understood by potential end users.”
“The fragmented and disorganised nature of shea supply chains in Africa means that, sheanut collectors, mostly women, rarely market their product collectively. This reduces the income that women are able to receive from their labours.”
Dr. Hobbs encouraged the planting of more shea trees to avert future shea tree parkland decline.
The GSA President, Konate Moumouni, assured the shea collectors that their safety would be guaranteed under the project.
“The GSA will also host international conferences and exhibitions in Africa, Europe and US as well as undertake research projects to demonstrate the benefits of shea in food and cosmetics”, he added.
It is estimated that, the shea sector in Ghana could yield 100 hundred tones of shea nuts worth about $US 100 million annually.
In Africa, 16 million sheanut collectors are directly and indirectly engaged in the sector.
The economic importance of the shea tree cannot be over emphasized, because researchers have revealed that the mature kernel contains about 61% fat needed for medicinal and industrial purposes.
Shea butter has been found to have a fat composition similar to cocoa butter, and it is used as a substitute for lard or margarine because it makes dough highly pliable.
The shea butter is known to be naturally rich in vitamins and minerals such as vitamins A, E, and F.
The residue of shea serves as excellent fuel and can also be mixed with mud for plastering traditional mud huts.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
