Competitive shea industry continues to grow

Last year, amid the beating of drums and joyful dancing, Sekaf Ghana inaugurated its first shea butter village near Tamale in northern Ghana. The village created 40 jobs for women. A year later, the facility employs 250 women and Sekaf is building two others like it in collaboration with international buyers.

“They like our approach,” Senyo Kpelly of Sekaf Ghana said of the buyers’ interest. “We have our own improved method of processing for the butter. We’ve seen things getting better, a lot of repeat customers.”

Kpelly’s experience is just one reflection of how well the shea industry is doing. As the shea nut trading season starts, industry insiders agree that the industry is in good shape.

Still, the shea industry is not without its challenges. Industry observers predict a smaller harvest this year, perhaps one third lower than last year’s crop.

Interest last year led some to buy when the price was high with hopes that it would go even higher. But it did not – especially with the global downturn – and they are stuck holding nuts, sources said. The problem they face now, one industry expert said, was that the nuts’ chemical composition has degraded while they’ve been sitting in warehouses, making them much less attractive to buyers.

At the village level, the primary challenge is ensuring consistent quality of shea butter produced by women using traditional methods, Lovett said. But, he noted, the quality of shea nuts has been increasing markedly after Trade Hub training workshops on quality issues. Increasingly exporters of handcrafted butter are finding market for reliable quality shea butter at bulk quantities in both the edible and cosmetic market at competitive prices. Consumer interest in shea butter in natural cosmetics and new market opportunities for shea butter’s use as a cocoa-butter equivalent make the industry’s overall outlook very positive, Lovett said.

“Despite the economic downturn last year, consumers continued to increase their purchases of natural cosmetics,” Lovett said. “They recognize what people in West Africa have known for generations upon generations – how well shea butter protects and nourishes the skin.”

In October, the Trade Hub helped four West African shea butter exporters establish contacts with more than 200 buyers in the U.S. who visited the Trade Hub-sponsored booth at the Cosmetic Chemists Suppliers’ Day in Long Beach, California.

The Trade Hub’s Africa Shea brand will build on the positive trends, and will figure highly in international events over coming months, he added.

“Africa Shea is about quality and authenticity,” he said. “Shea butter from Africa is getting better and better and it comes with a long history that is culturally significant. Africa Shea is about promoting those elements so that the economic benefits are truly felt in villages across West Africa and livelihoods improve.”

Working at every level of the value chain – from women’s groups producing butter traditionally in villages to traders buying raw shea nuts to mechanical processors refining butter for export to major international buyers and retailers – the Trade Hub’s work across the region has helped shea exporters become more competitive.

The result is more jobs and higher incomes over the past three years. In Ghana alone, a 2006 study estimated that 600,000 rural women earn income from collecting shea nuts for sale and processing others into shea butter.

•    In Nigeria, the shea industry is starting to expand. The Trade Hub’s financing shea initiative helped spur new facilities for shea exporters. Appraisals of Nigerian shea sourcing strategies are also being conducted by at least three major international buyers.

•    In Mali, shea nut quality has markedly improved. Laboratory scientists working for international buyers have noted the improvements, sources said.

•    In Benin, a shea butter-producing company took its products to buyers at a U.S. international trade show for the first time.

•    In Ghana, as many as seven processing facilities now transform shea nuts into shea butter. Their collective capacity is about 70,000 tons of shea nuts annually.

Next March, the Trade Hub will organize Shea 2010 in Bamako, Mali, the third edition of the international conference that brings industry stakeholders together to discuss the opportunities and constraints. Click here to see the latest on plans for the conference and opportunities to sponsor and participate!

“The Trade Hub sees opportunities for further efficiency and expansion of markets for shea,” said Trade Hub Director Vanessa Adams. “Shea 2010 will be the culminating event for the shea season with people across the industry gathering to improve the value chain.”

“The industry has been growing steadily over the last decade,” said Dr. Peter Lovett, the Trade Hub’s Shea Sector Expert. “More and more of these exports are as valued-added product as we’ve seen improvements at every level.”

Estimating the number of tons exported is difficult, but figures from the Port of Tema in Ghana showed about 80,000 tons of raw shea kernels officially went through the port in 2008 and about 4,000 tons of processed butter. However, industry insiders said the numbers were probably higher. Adding the volumes that left ports in Abidjan, Conakry, Lagos and Lome probably means that as many 350,000 tons of raw shea nuts were exported in 2008, and perhaps 30,000 tons of butter.

“The industry guards its numbers pretty closely,” Lovett said. “But the industry is evolving and with new entrants, we’re seeing a more sophisticated and more modern business emerge.”

Lovett said about one third of all exports are being extracted within the region, not only with machines in factories but, increasingly, by the handcrafted methods of women’s groups as they link into the international shea butter market.

“The women’s groups’ competitiveness has improved,” Lovett said. “And international demand continues to steadily grow.”

Peter Stedman, a shea butter buyer for The Body Shop, a leading international retailer of natural cosmetics, agreed. For over 15 years, The Body Shop has worked with the Tungteiya Women’s Association in Northern Ghana, using the shea butter the women make in its popular line of products. Starting with its first annual purchase of five tons in 1994, the company now buys over 250 tons from members of the association each year.

“Alternative trade and ethical trade, as general trends, have shown themselves to be more resilient overall and less susceptible to the economic downturn,” Stedman said. “People aren’t willing to compromise on ethics and quality and naturalness. We’re still in a good position.”

Still, the shea industry is not without its challenges. Industry observers predict a smaller harvest this year, perhaps one third lower than last year’s crop.

Interest last year led some to buy when the price was high with hopes that it would go even higher. But it did not – especially with the global downturn – and they are stuck holding nuts, sources said. The problem they face now, one industry expert said, was that the nuts’ chemical composition has degraded while they’ve been sitting in warehouses, making them much less attractive to buyers.

At the village level, the primary challenge is ensuring consistent quality of shea butter produced by women using traditional methods, Lovett said. But, he noted, the quality of shea nuts has been increasing markedly after Trade Hub training workshops on quality issues. Increasingly exporters of handcrafted butter are finding market for reliable quality shea butter at bulk quantities in both the edible and cosmetic market at competitive prices. Consumer interest in shea butter in natural cosmetics and new market opportunities for shea butter’s use as a cocoa-butter equivalent make the industry’s overall outlook very positive, Lovett said.

“Despite the economic downturn last year, consumers continued to increase their purchases of natural cosmetics,” Lovett said. “They recognize what people in West Africa have known for generations upon generations – how well shea butter protects and nourishes the skin.”

In October, the Trade Hub helped four West African shea butter exporters establish contacts with more than 200 buyers in the U.S. who visited the Trade Hub-sponsored booth at the Cosmetic Chemists Suppliers’ Day in Long Beach, California.

The Trade Hub’s Africa Shea brand will build on the positive trends, and will figure highly in international events over coming months, he added.

“Africa Shea is about quality and authenticity,” he said. “Shea butter from Africa is getting better and better and it comes with a long history that is culturally significant. Africa Shea is about promoting those elements so that the economic benefits are truly felt in villages across West Africa and livelihoods improve.”

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By Joe Lamport

Saraki Wife Commends Turai

The Wife of the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Mrs Oluwatoyin Saraki has commended the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Hajia (Dr) Turai Yar’ Adua for the her initiatives to empower women in Nigeria.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop on upgrading of the quality of shea butter produced in Kwara State at Ode-Giwa in the Asa Local Government of Kwara State yesterday, Mrs Saraki noted that the First Lady had shown interest in the shea butter produced in Kwara State and the need to package same for the international market.

She pointed out that she had worked through her Alaafia Kwara in the past six years to improve the capacity of rural women in Kwara State and that this training was a giant step in the direction which she aspired for shea butter and other natural produce from Kwara State.
She encouraged participants at the workshop to acquire as much knowledge as possible from the programme identifying it as one sure way of lifting their individual economies and that of the state.
The four day workshop is a  joint initiative of the wife of the Governor of Kwara State and the Kwara State Ministry of Industry Solid Minerals.

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Shea Potential Goes To Waste

A participant I was seated by got angry at a point and moaned to my hearing that nature has been too kind to the dark skinned loud-mouthed dwellers of sub-Saharan Africa; such that they have been overwhelmed and cannot use the abundant natural resources like the Shea nut to better their lot.

The occasion was the launch of a baseline data analysis commissioned by the Ghana Trade and Livelihoods Coalition (GTLC) to foster the unleashing of the allowed-to-rot potential of the Shea industry.

The anger of the unnamed participant was stoked by Ibrahim Akalbila, Coordinator of the Coalition, who painstakingly brought to light what decades of neglect had done to the shea potential and those that depend on it most rural women of northern Ghana.

The tree crop in question grows in the wilds of Western and Eastern Africa and found in sheer abundance in the Savannah woodlands of Northern Ghana. “It is said to abound in thirty eight districts in the three regions of the north.

The nuts of the tree are full of money – vegetable fat. This cholesterol- free fat is an edible one and has been used in many Ghanaian dishes since creation. It is said to be responsible for why chocolate from many parts of the world, except Ghana, feels soft and melts easily in the mouth.

It is a good protector of the human skin against the harmatan in particular. The cosmetic industry globally has also found a good ingredient in it. As such, its demand on the international market, although not as much as cocoa, is on the increase.

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Things would have been even better, says the GTLC, if the government of Ghana had over the years admitted that cocoa cannot do it all alone, and had invested some resources into selling the Shea industry. In the last ten years, says Ibrahim Akalbila, not a pesewa has gone to the Cocoa Research Institute, a body that oversees research into other tree crops, for research on the Shea tree.

Ghana Cocobod is also in charge of the Shea industry but “Cocobod’s role in the research and development of the Shea tree has not been consistent over the years.” This, according to Ibrahim Akalbila, has not helped to bring the needed attention to the industry. A separate body, he believes, is needed for the Shea industry. But the challenge, here too, is how the body will be funded. As matters stand now, the state does not earn much from Shea to support a regulatory body for it. The money may have to come from somewhere.

Meanwhile, the future of the raw material base is not certain. The Shea tree is said to take about 25 to 30 years to mature and bear fruit in the wild whilst an experimental plantation started in 1985 is yet to see its first nut.

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“Protection of the Shea plant in the wild is not guaranteed as long as competing events such as bio-fuel plantations, charcoal production provide faster access to money for land owners (chiefs) and communities.”

Certain cultural beliefs in some growing areas do not help matters either. It is for instance believed by some that one cannot grow a Shea tree and live to eat its fruit. So why plant one?

Pickers of the nuts also believe that the further they go into the Savannah the better nuts they get. So the idea of domesticating the tree crop, which the GTLC wants to see happen, is something the culturally disposed pickers would not broach. So if the talks of establishing processing factories making the rounds are to stand, then the need to address the shortfall in the raw material base stands.

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Currently, Ghana is estimated to produce 130,000? metric tonnes (mt) of Shea nuts annually, 70,000 mt of which is used locally whilst 60,000 mt is exported. About 45,000 mt is exported as raw nuts and 15,000 mt as butter. “At a rate of 50,000 mt per year that may expand to 150,000 mt when two other factories are established in the Upper East and West Regions, the proposed factories will be absorbing a chunk of the quantity that is already produced,” says the study report.

To satisfy both local and international demand for the raw material and/ or its products, GTLC, through the baseline report puts forwards two solutions.

The first is a common West Africa agreement that would bring nuts to the factories in Ghana for processing into butter for the sub-regional market and others. “This will ensure consistent supply of nuts all year round and drive a common marketing strategy for West Africa Shea.”

The second is to “increase the stock of Shea in Ghana in the next 5-10 years by funding enhanced research and undertaking some institutional restructuring to improve management of existing trees and growing more trees. The GTLC concept of domestication that brings benefit to communities is the method proposed here for expansion of new plantations.”

Research, the GTLC Coordinator believes, should be able to come out with varieties with far shorter gestation periods and improved quality. “The concept of domestication by bringing plantations near to homes on family farms is feasible and is dependent on progress in research to reduce the gestation period of the tree.”

The industrialization of the Shea industry has another challenge – sustaining the livelihood of the tireless but longsuffering women pickers in the value chain. Even now, the women feel cheated by unscrupulous middlemen who buy the nuts from them at alarmingly low prices.

“Pickers and processors have the conviction that when ownership systems are defined clearly; if there was unity among Shea pickers, if the plant was domesticated, if pickers and processors were provided with equipment, if laws are enacted to punish offenders, sensitization and educational campaigns are carried out effectively, transportation facilities readily available for carting nuts back home, most, if not all, of the challenges the sector faces would be solved. GTLC agrees with the above convictions.”

By Basiru Adam

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PBC To Get Into Sheanut Industry

The Produce Buying Company Limited (PBC) has proposed to set up a subsidiary Company to be known as PBC Shea Limited to cater for Sheanut operations. Its intension is to purchase Sheanut from sheanut farmers during the 2008 /2009 harvesting season. Having been able to put back a track of sustainable profitability, the PBC intends to get into Sheanut operations.

PBC was the market leader prior to 1989 season when the cocoa sector reforms brought PBC’s participation in sheanut operation to a halt.

Speaking at a short ceremony in Accra, yesterday, the board chairman of PBC , Nana Timothy Aye Kusi, said that this geared the company on to mobilise required resources and to sign a memorandum of understanding with Cocoa Marketing Company Limited of Ghana Cocoa Board to undertake the external sales on behalf of PBC.

He indicated that for proximity to raw materials, the PBC Shea Limited will be sited at Buipe in the Northern Region.

Negotiations, he said, are far advanced with the chief and elders of Buipe to acquire a 16- acre land near the Volta River.

Nana Kusi disclosed that PBC Limited will sell the raw materials to PBC Shea Limited to be processed initially into Shea butter and into oils and other derivatives.

He added that processing of sheanut into butter and oil will add value to the nut in addition to generating employment.

“It is worth noting that the project falls within the government’s plan to develop the Savanna areas of this country’,'he said.

Nana Kusi further stated that the company shall uphold its commitment to be the leader in the participation of the internal marketing of cocoa and sheanut and ensure that farmers are well catered for in addition to stakeholders getting maximum returns for their investment.

Source: ISD

Optimizing the value of shea in poverty alleviation in the three northern regions

If you are longing to become one of Ghana’s latest “nouveau riche”, then go the nine yards as a shea farmer or producer of the crop. For, small and medium scale shea farmers and producers will soon advance to the rank of the rich as the product evolves as the nation’s newest economic mutt’s nut. And this is no day dreaming though it sounds like a stunt.

The shea industry is projected to gross nearly 500 million dollars for the 20 African countries that subsist on this produce in the next five years; albeit only a few of these West African nations are serious contenders. These are Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali.

A study by the West African Trade Hub (WATH), a United States Government-funded development project that promotes trade in the sub-region, establishes that shea exports’ value as of 2008 was 100 million dollars. But this figure is expected to jump dramatically to half a billion dollars in the next five years when the expected investments in the sector begin to yield results.

Dr Peter Lovett, a shea expert, said in a paper that the value of the produce has increased in Ghana with the current average price estimated at 400 dollars per ton. In the past, only 50,000 tons of shea nuts at an average price of 150 dollars per ton were exported, “bringing in less than 10 million dollars to the region”, he said.

A blast from the past makes one cringe at the fact that small scale shea farmers and producers could become Ghana’s newest “nouveau riche” and the idea sounds like a wild card. It is hard to imagine this product, which is native to rural African women in the savannah zone, becoming the latest “red letter” to Ghana’s economic development when it has become has been neglected for years.

It is hard to imagine that although shea is regarded as a big money grosser, Ghanaian authorities have allowed it to be in the lull for the past nine years without a yawn from even the Produce Buying Company, which used to market the product. The answer may well lie in a number of inter-related factors such as ignorance, the lack of well-thought policy, the lack of clarity from the directing class, and the lack of marketing facilities.

Take the issue of ignorance. Many Ghanaians have little or no knowledge about the economic value of shea besides a limited knowledge about its use for personal care. Interestingly, WATH has established that increased trade in bulk shea nuts and butter can help “improve rural livelihoods, especially for African women, who pick and hand process shea nuts and butter” noting that optimizing the global value chain of the produce will help in eliminating poverty in the sub-region. Somehow, many Ghanaians took it for granted.

Shea butter is one of the cheapest products on the Ghanaian market so everybody takes it for granted, save when the harmattan beckons. It is also used on new born babies, in line with myths that shea will help to relieve them of stress from the unknown world they came from. Whatsoever the case, shea is a treasure. In the instance of personal care, shea butter is used differently as a moisturizer, as soap with high “saponifiable” content, and in skin and hair care cosmetics as lotion and cream.

In the gourmet (catering) industry, shea is used as edible fat which is an equivalence of cocoa butter in the making of chocolates, and as an additive to confectionary products, biscuits and pastries in the form of shea stearin or vegetable fat. Alander (2002) demonstrates that medically, shea can be used as a pharmaceutical product for the treatment of eczema, arthritis and high cholesterol. Equally, shea has regenerative properties that are used to soothe and reduce inflammation, stretch marks and wrinkles. Shea also has antioxidants, carotenoids and flavonoids and as a result, it is often seen as the preferred ingredient in preparations made for the cosmetic industry Even so, the industry faces lots of difficulties. Despite its tendency to provide all-year-round employment for the projected three million rural women involved in shea harvesting, the sector is struggling with some challenges.

The challenges include poor processing and the difficulty in domesticating the shea crop, which for now remains largely a wild crop and as a result just about half of the expected produce are harvested. Even with this shea trees were being destroyed for charcoal production. Currently sheanut picking and post-harvesting handling are done in a rudimentary form, thus hindering the effectiveness of the sector to transform from small industrial processing into large industrial processing that will rake in the millions of dollars at stake.

Madam Araba Abu, a spokeswoman for the Sunbawiera Sheanuts and Sheabutter Producers Association in the Upper West Region, recently urged the government not to renege in its commitment to establish an authority to oversee the regulation of the shea industry. She appealed to the government to supply members with wellington boots, gloves and tarpaulins to facilitate their work. Similarly, Alhaji Imoru Ayittey, Chairman of the Association in a recent interview with the GNA said sheanut and sheabutter producers remained poor and vulnerable, hence the need for the government to give the industry serious attention.

On the other hand, modest efforts have been made in this regard with diversification in the area of shea butter consolidation, refining and fractionation. According to the WATH, three big companies buy 90 per cent of the sub-region’s nuts. It is not all gloom though. There are some success stories, instigated mostly by WATH, which is working towards increasing exports of regional products to stimulate job creation. Using the AGOA platform, the Hub has helped to produce both bulk shea butter and finished shea cosmetics in line with international quality standards.

Most of these products are packaged and shipped to meet rigorous demands of the US cosmetic market. Through WATH’s interventions, two Ghanaian entrepreneurs, Madam Comfort Adjahoe of Ele Agbe Company and Gladys Commey of All Pure Nature Company currently fill orders for more than 12, 000 shea soaps and 4, 000 creams to US markets.

According to WATH, “in addition to boosting their revenues, the order will also provide work and investment opportunities for approximately 120 women in rural northern Ghana” which supplies the shea butter to the two businesses: “Their relationship with Ten Thousand Villages (a U.S.-based fair trade retail chain that is making forays into the cosmetic market) began in 2006, when it participated in a handcrafts buying trip organized by the Hub”. Likewise, Madam Eugenia Akuete, founder of Naasakle, produces 10 tons of butter a month and ships it directly to clients in Chicago through the efforts of the Hub. In neighbouring Benin, Gilles Adamon, owner of Natura Sarl and his colleague Victor Lulla, produce 200, 000 bars of shea butter soap per month. The scantiness of state policy on the shea trade is also being tackled, though tougher actions are required. Speaking at the 2009 Shea conference held in Ouagadougou, the Burkinabe capital, earlier in the year, Vice-President John Mahama announced that government was overhauling the industry and transform it into a priority one to enable it to tap into the fast expanding global shea trade.

The shift, he examined, was in recognition of the crucial role that the shea crop plays in the socio-economic development of the savannah area of the country and hinted at efforts to place it on the same trajectory as cocoa. Vice-President Mahama rationalises government’s renewed interest in the shea industry as follows:

“The understanding of government with these commitments is to make the shea industry the major driving force in the accelerated development of the savannah areas of Ghana.” Among the steps the Vice-President outlined would be taken by the government was to provide farmers with protective clothing to guard against snake and insect bites for the gathering of the wild crop as efforts were being made to domesticate it. Interestingly, the PBC is making amends too.

The company recently signed an agreement with Sysgate Limited of Brazil towards the establishment of shea nut processing plant to be sited on a 6.4 hectare at Buipe in the for the export of shea butter to Brazil. Nana Aye Kusi, Chairman of the new Board of Directors of the PBC, has also announced the creation of a separate entity, PBC Shea Limited, a 10-million dollar subsidiary of the parent company charged with overseeing the purchasing, processing and marketing of shea nut in commercial quantities. It is projected that the annual income to be raked in from this facility will slightly be in the region of 40 million dollars per annum.

The establishment of this plant would enable the joint PBC/Sysgate consortium to process between 40 to 100,000 tonnes of nuts yearly, thus helping increase by more than half the percentage of shea nuts harvested annually in Ghana which now stand at about 50 per cent. But other key issues that might help to spur the growth of the industry remains outstanding. For instance government has yet to appoint a Shea Development Board to provide leadership that is required for the transformation of the industry.

An essence of this feature is to remind the Mills Administration of the need to quickly put in place the structures that will help facilitate the growth of the shea industry and make it a fulcrum for reducing poverty among women in the three northern regions of Ghana and the contiguous savannah belt of the Volta and Brong-Ahafo Regions. A

GNA feature by Nathaniel Glover-Meni

BoI Approves N820m Loans for Niger

Bank of Industry (BoI) said yesterday that it has approved a total of N816.984 million as loans to entrepreneurs, including those operating as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and cooperative groups consisting of  rural dwellers, in Niger state.

Managing Director of BoI, Ms. Evelyn Oputu,  said  in Abuja at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the bank  and Niger state government on the N1 billion Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF) that, loans to SMEs summed up to N714.50 million while that for the cooperative groups stood at N102.48 million.
Oputu, who was represented by the bank’s Executive Director, Mr. Chris Umeh,  disclosed that SMEs assisted were those engaged in cassava flour milling, plastic production and  rice milling while the cooperative groups were men  and women engaging in shea butter production, rice processing, cassava processing, melon processing, cattle fattening, among others.

Besides, she pointed out that BoI and its foreign and domestic partners had in the last 18 months, organised capacity building for potential and current entrepreneurs in Niger state. “They include the Boot Camp that was attended by almost seven participants and the workshop on financing shea butter production,” she added.  According to her, “By all accounts, BoI and the Niger state government have been working very hard to improve the lot of Nigerlites even before the MoU was signed.
By signing the MoU today, we would be formalising our collaborative efforts.” She  said the N1 billion MSMEDF, which is to be financed N500 million each by the BoI and

Niger state government “shall be  dedicated to the provision of financial assistance to entrepreneurs in the state.”
Niger state Commissioner for Investments, Commerce and Industries, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello,   who said the state had been able to contribute N300 million of its own counterpart fund, however said the state government was not relenting in its efforts at providing its own part of the financing arrangement.

Sheabutter Association calls for review of Sheanut price

The Sunbawiera Sheanuts and Sheabutter Producers Association in the Upper West Region, has appealed to the government to facilitate good prices for their produce.

The association, which is based at Kperisi, a farming community in the Wa Municipality, made the appeal at a forum to discuss ways of improving the quality of their produce.

The members said the current price of GH¢20 per 85 kilogram’s of their yield was too low and did not give farmers the motivation to invest in the cash crop, taking into consideration the snake bites and other risks involved in picking the sheanut.

Alhaji Iddrisu Adams, an opinion leader in the community and a member of the association noted that in the past shea trees were destroyed for farming and charcoal production.

However, many people had seen the economic importance of the crop through public sensitization.

“We have now (Association) made it an offence for anybody to cut down a shea tree and if the government takes keen interest in the development of the Industry, we shall also reciprocate by establishing shea plantations”, he said.

Madam Araba Abu, a spokeswoman for the association urged the government not to renege in its commitment to establish an Authority to oversee the regulation of the shea nut industry.

She appealed to the government to supply members with Wellington boots, gloves and tarpaulins to facilitate their work.

Alhaji Imoru Ayittey, Chairman of the association said sheanut and sheabutter producers were poor and vulnerable, hence the need for the authorities to give the industry serious attention to better their lot.

Mr. Haruna Morrie Regional Trade and Industry officer said his sector Ministry was studying the business plan of the association to offer members the needed assistance.

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Market forces to determine the prices of shea nut

The media have been urged to re-brand Northern Ghana as an investment destination, full of untapped resources that urgently requires the attention of government and development partners to utilize for the alleviation of poverty in the area.

Professor Saa Ditto, a Senior Lecturer at the University for Development Studies observed that the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions have abundant minerals including gold, which could rapidly improve the lot of the people.

The Educationist was addressing a workshop in Tamale at the weekend for media practitioners from the three northern regions, organised by the Nu Image Communications, a non-governmental organisation on the theme: “Re-branding North; the role of the media.” Prof. Ditto, who spoke on economic, social and political opportunities in the North, observed that the nation does not understand its agricultural economy or deliberately skew its policy towards export crops, which contributes only 13 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and a huge expenditure of about 40.6 per cent.

He said according to the 2000-2007 GDP, crops contributed about 66.7 per cent of the agricultural share of the economy and such crops were mainly produced in the North but ironically, infrastructural development was skewed to other parts of the country. Prof. Ditto questioned the rationale for allowing market forces to determine the prices of shea nut and cotton, which are mainly produced in the North.

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Uganda: Charcoal Burning Threatens Shea Tree

Kampala — CULTURAL law protects it. Village elders forbid their people from cutting it. Locals say if the tree is cut, a drought will descend upon the land and a curse unto the cutter. But, today, despite all the efforts of the local leaders, the much adored tree in this northern part of the country is under threat.

Yet, with its natural ability to yield nuts for up to 300 years and produce oil, the shea nut tree is but a godsend to the locals here.

When people lived in internally displaced people’s camps (IDP) camps, the bylaw protecting the shea nut tree was disregarded.

Elders were dispersed, diluting their power, and rebels made searching for firewood highly dangerous. As a result, people in IDPs cut down the trees closest to the camp, and the much honoured shea nut tree was not spared. Today, the land around camps is alarmingly dry and treeless.

Adding to this pressure, the charcoal trade is booming as peace reigns and people return to their homes. “Before the camps, people were going for agriculture, but now they need immediate money so they turn to charcoal burning and selling,” says Samuel Abwola, the district forestry officer in Gulu.

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In the past, charcoal burning was considered a lowly job but as harvests fail under the scorching sun, for many it has become the only source of livelihood.

“Women, men, young, old, anyone can charcoal. It just needs energy,” says Abwola.

Hardwoods, like the shea nut tree, are especially popular because they produce heavy charcoal that burns for a long time and produces strong heat.

Despite the booming charcoal trade and the desirable charcoaling qualities of the shea nut tree, some village elders are trying to implement the cultural law protecting the tree once more.

Akena John Bosco, who just received a score of 11 in his A’ levels exams from Kitgum High School, has been burning charcoal in his village of Loyoajong for the past three months.

“If you want to get money in the village, you have to do it,” he says, adding that he hopes to continue his studies as soon as he can.

He does the charcoal burning all by himself, from cutting the tree, to heating it in the traditional kiln to packing it in plastic sacks. He does not cut down the shea nut trees for charcoal because of the strong leadership in his village.

“When you cut a shea nut tree, the local leaders demand a fine of sh50,000 or ask you to slaughter a goat,” he says, as he covers his charcoal sack with dry grass.

The shea nut oil is central to the northern way of life. Most women in Loyoajong make shea oil, which is used for cooking and moisturising babies’ skin. Mothers send their children out to collect the nuts, which they then dry, pound, and cook to obtain the oil.

According to a village elder, Nyeko Livingstone, 69, the oil is also used in many traditional ceremonies. “When someone dies of an illness, the surviving family members are smeared with shea,” he says.

Despite the growing protection of certain species, trees are turning to charcoal.

According to Abwola, local leaders should be supported in their efforts but tree protection is not enough. “We want to have people come together to replant the area where they cut trees for charcoaling,” he says, adding that without replanting, the trees will disappear, and so will the charcoal trade.

By Isabel Pike click for more

US Embassy supports rural women with a shea grinding mill

The Jagung Women’s Group in the Savelugu/Nanton District has benefited from a 5,000-dollar grinding mill for grinding and processing of shea products. The mill was acquired through the support of the US Ambassador’s Special Self-Help Programmes that is aimed at encouraging projects that promote individual and community empowerment through increased access to healthcare, education, improved sanitation, access to water and vocational training.

The US Embassy channelled funds through the Kuga-Fong Mansongsem Community Association, (KMCA), a Tamale non-governmental organisation, which installed the mill and handed it over to the women on Monday.

Mr. Justin Davis, an official at the US Embassy who inaugurated the mill, said the US Ambassador’s special Self-Help Programme was more of fostering bilateral relationship between the two countries than assisting communities. He said since 1990, the US Embassy in Accra had given grants totalling $1.5 million to execute more than 400 projects across the country and assured of more support.

Mr. Davis said the embassy received many project applications and had supported 10 out of the many from the 10 regions with 50,000 dollars. He commended the NGO for installing the mill at the stipulated time and advised the women to take advantage of the facility to process their shea products to meet international standards.

Alhaji Muhammed Abdul-Samed Gunu, Executive Director of KMCA, said hunger, poverty and disease had marginalized women in various communities in the north and that the project was necessary since it would help relieve the women of the burden of travelling about six miles to Savelugu to grind their shea nuts for processing.