Mrs Adesumbo Adeleke, founder, Shea Network Initiative on Friday in Lagos observed that shea butter production could become Nigeria’s major revenue earner, if government placed better value on it.
The Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) Mr Segun Awolowo, had in 2015 noted that Nigeria loses N345 billion annually to smuggling of shea products.
Adeleke said that the demand for the country’s shea butter and its ancillary products were high at the global market, especially in Europe and America.
He also said that the demand for shea butter and allied products had increased and that the country had become the largest global producer of shea products.
Adeleke noted that a major challenge facing shea butter production was market linkages and quality control.
“Most of the processes in shea butter-making are still in crude forms; we only have very little interventions in terms of training, financing and moral support from the USAID, FADAMA projects and other NGOs.
“Most of the people involved in the processing are working mainly with manual tools and this has really affected supplies.
‘This is the situation with most non-oil export products we have in Nigeria, like sesame seeds and cassava products, which are in abundance.
“Once we broadcast the usefulness of our items locally and globally, and the demand begins to come, the supply chain becomes a challenge because the necessary structures to maintain supplies are not available.
“The challenges include obsolete machines, poor training on global standards of processing and packaging.
“I run a shea factory along with supply chain services but the major issue is financing. We have tried to solve this problem by organising processors into cooperatives to source for funds.
“Shea butter is the new oil, because it has numerous healing properties.
“There is an urgent need for financing of shea butter production and supply chain to move it from its mediocre state to World-recognised state,’’ Adeleke said.
Mrs Funlola Ajayi, Chief Executive Officer, Shea Radiance, a Nigerian shea beauty products’ company, also said that the government needed to further support more women involved in shea processing business.
“It was said in a recent documentary, the gains of shea butter business have shifted from the hands of the locals through repackaging, but this is not true.
“The problem we have with shea butter at the global market is that of poor standards in processing and packaging; the medium is still very primitive, compared to demands that shea butter already has.
“Shea butter has become a necessity in every home, even outside the shores of this country; it is used as a body cream, hair cream and for cooking.
“We pray the government responds positively to the cry of shea processors, so that we can reap the gains of the product, especially in areas of job-creation and revenue-generation,’’ Ajayi said.
NAN
