In 2019, Denmark disbursed ₦1.6b to help women shea butter producers in Nigeria. But the project closed early and reached very few of the women it targeted. But even then, local shea producers said they had never heard of the programme.Nigeria Denmark
Screenshot of the approval letter for the shea butter project
Findings, however, showed that many of the women in Saki and Tede are still living in poverty and working in hazardous conditions with little access to direct trade, and sometimes, they are exploited by middlemen. The traditional shea butter production process involves getting to the forest at 4:00.a.m. in the morning to use their bare hands to gather green shea fruits off the ground before the animals consume them. The fruits are de-pulped, parboiled, then sun-dried.
Women typically produce shea butter right in their backyards. The shea nuts are ground into a paste at the local mill, then deposited in an unfinished cement building. From there, the ladies shovel the paste into big cast-iron cauldrons and boil it over firewood stoves.In the busiest season, between May and July, it requires two to three days and 8.5 to 10 kilograms of firewood to make 1 kg of butter.
Some women have formed self-sponsored independent cooperatives, or collectives under organisations like the Initiative for Gender Empowerment and Creativity , which, in collaboration with the Coca-Cola Foundation, established the Climate-Smart Shea Processing Facility in Tede, to protect themselves from exploitation. Through these cooperatives, the women in these communities collaborate with the local factory owners to set and manage price caps.
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