No fewer than 30,000 women in Oyo State would, within the next three years, benefit from an empowerment scheme of a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Shea Empowerment Foundation (SEF), on the potentials derivable from Shea value chain.
The initiative is aimed at promoting a sustainable business model for the women and youths in the Shea and agricultural sectors.
To actualise the goal, the SEF, in partnership with Danida Market Development Partnerships (DMDP), Global Shea Alliance (GSA) and National Shea Products Association of Nigeria (NASPAN) with the support of the Oyo State Government, facilitated a stakeholder engagement meeting to enlist the support of other stakeholders on improving the condition of Shea Butter collectors in the State.
The stakeholders meeting themed: “Developing the Shea Sector in Oyo State,” created an avenue for all participants in the local and international Shea and agricultural sectors to discuss the implementation of the best practices that would drive the development of a highly productive, diversified and market-led Shea Butter sector.
While speaking at the inauguration, the Executive Director of SEF, Mrs Mobola Sagoe, expressed optimism that the development of the Shea sector in Nigeria would greatly impact the local Shea producing communities, placing the Nigerian Shea Market on the Global Shea Map and improving the Nigerian economy as a whole.
Sagoe said: “This project would place the women Shea collectors in a valuable position in the Shea Value Chain as well as strengthen their knowledge and capabilities whilst improving their lives. As an NGO, we found out that in the rural areas, the loads of women there would need to be trained and empowered to give the State quality product.”
She disclosed that the NGO was set up, on the advice of the USAID, to train women and empower them to the level where they would be able to get support from other organizations to help take it further rather than using the funds of shareholders to empower the women, saying the NGO has trained about 2,000 to 3,000 women who have gone ahead to train other women.
Sagoe noted: “If we train 1,000, the 1,000 is supposed to go back and train maybe another 5,000 or more, but we have repeated a few of the trainings because of the calibre of people we are dealing with. We have had several people supporting us without taking anything from us. We intend to train 30,000 women for this project in the next 3 years in Oyo State.”
In his remark, the Chief of Staff to the Governor of Oyo State, Chief Bisi Ilaka, lauded the initiative, while he stressed that the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde was out to expand the economy of the State and lift the people out of poverty, adding that agriculture was one of the veritable tools in that regard.
He pointed out that the Shea Butter sector would have a lot to do with women in terms of capacity building in order to improve their financial wellbeing, saying they would be afforded training to process high quality Shea Butter that could compete globally with the best global practices.
Ilaka said: “We have challenges of mass unemployment in the State; this will also impact on those figures, directly and indirectly. I hope this is the first of many other initiatives that will come to the State, because it is important that we build our people. The biggest resource we have in this State is our people and if we make them better equipped to deal with the challenges of day to day, with the vicissitudes of life, it will bode well for us as a people in the State.”
Some beneficiaries of the training who spoke with newsmen, attested to the benefits derivable in the processing of Shea Butter, describing it as a money making venture for both old and younger generations, while appealing to government, at various levels, to grant loans to trainees to afford them the opportunities of expanding the scope of the Shea sector in order to boost the economy.
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