ISODEC calls for quick action on Shea industry

The Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), a Non Governmental
Organization operating in the Northern region wants government to demonstrate its conviction to develop the Shea industry by quickening its pace to enable stakeholders in that sector to compete with their colleagues in the cocoa sector. ISODEC says every effort must be made to make the Shea industry catch up with the booming cocoa industry, hence the urgent need for government to develop the political goodwill towards that achievement. This demand was made at a news conference held in Tamale to launch the Shea research on re-organizing the Shea industry toward poverty reduction in northern Ghana. The organization made several recommendations part of which implored government to create an independent Shea board to facilitate the rapid development of the Shea industry that plays a vital role in the Ghanaian economy. The statement also impressed upon government to initiate a policy to build up the producers skills in business management and bargaining skills as a means of strengthening their capacity to produce quality products to meet international standards. ISODEC Northern Growth Programme coordinator, Grace Abena Bowu who addressed the press, also appealed to government to incorporate the recommendations into the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority programmes as a way of making the Shea industry realize its fullest potential. The organization considered marketing as a major obstacle to the progress of the Shea industry and therefore saw the need for the value chain approach to be adopted as the best marketing strategy to improve that sector’s financial gains. The Statement emphasized that marketing should be improved through the value chain approach by adding value to the product and taking advantage of the expanding market of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Mr. Senyo Kpelly, Executive Director of SEKAF, a private organization into Shea production disclosed that his organization had recruited about 2,500 women who are producing soap and Shea butter for sale but complained expansion because there is no affordable income to leverage the gains made so far. FIILA/SA