Esther Salifu
As part of measures to empower women through shea products, The Nigerian Export Promotion Council, (NEPC) has reiterated its commitment to continue training stakeholders in the shea sector in Agricultural practices (GAP), Good Warehousing practices (GWP) to ensure supply chain resilience required by exporter.
This was disclosed by the Executive Director/CEO, of Nigerian Export Promotion Council, (NEPC), Nonye Ayeni, at the Commissioning of the SEBORE International Dairy Farm, organized by the Global Shea Alliance (GSA) held in Abuja.
The program seeks for women inclusiveness and empowerment in the shea butter industry, most especially women in the rural areas who have access to shea butter nut.
According to the Executive Director, the theme “Bridging the Gap” is to address the opportunities, challenges and issues affecting the development and production of shea products for export.
She said Nigeria is one of the major country producing shea, saying that recently, the NEPC in partnership with CBI spearheaded the participation of twelve Shea processors and exporters to market access engagement in Barcelona. All of the participants secured export orders because of the value addition and rebranding of Nigeria Shea products.
The Executive Director said women are more involved in Shea products, “ Over 80% of the people involved in the shea trade are women , this speak loudly to women empowerment and inclusiveness as well as job creation which aligns with his excellency’s renewed hope agenda”
She further stated that “ This conference offers a veritable platform for all stakeholders to explore the huge opportunities in the production of she and its derivatives going by theme ‘bridging the gap’ which speaks to the opportunities, challenges and issues affecting the development and production of the commodity for export “.
Ayeni further stated that the council in collaboration with partners, the Council established shea facilities in Saki, Kebbi and Ilorin while plans are underway for the establishment of more of these facilities.
“We expect to see more traction and more people use these facilities. Over 4000 women have benefited from this facility. In partnership with International Training Centre (ITC), the NEPC have also trained over 8,000 women. It is very instructive to note that exportation of raw agricultural products including shea deprive the nation of the much-needed foreign exchange as value added products earn premium prices in the international market”, she said
Ayeni commended the organizers of the conference for choosing Nigeria as the venue of the conference.
Speaking further, the President of National Shea Products Association of Nigeria, Mohammed Ahmed Kontagora, said the theme ” Bridging the Gap” is to discuss how to bridge the gap in Shea sector in order to have complete chain cycle unhindered.
He said, “The aim of the program is to sit down around, and proffer solutions , and how to bridge those gaps , so we will continue to have complete chain cycle unhindered”.
“We will see that the women working so hard, exerting a lot of labor, how can they get value for their labor , because we also observe as part of the missing link some people at the top notch are the ones making the money”
Advans Ghana Savings and Loan LTD, Alhassan Salley, said the program also tackled the challenges women faced in assessing loan due to the complicated bank’s requirements.
“We did an assessment and found out that you will need your husband to sign as part of these policies and that’s why the women dropped off and some husbands wouldn’t want to , so that aspect also we are getting rid of that , so that women can access funds”, Salley added.
Other women in the skin care industry, also talked about shea butter as one of their key ingredients in producing their products , they spoke about some challenges faced in the industry, and how far they have come in their skin care journey .
