As Niger shea butter industries commence operation, women accuse L G of non-cooperation

However, achieving that level of production in the company depends on the  availability of raw materials, operators at the industry have said.Director -General of Niger State Commodity and Export Promotion Agency, Alhaji Mohammed Ahmed Kontagora, speaking on the reasons for the establishment of the industries, said shea trees are found in all parts of the […]

However, achieving that level of production in the company depends on the  availability of raw materials, operators at the industry have said.
Director -General of Niger State Commodity and Export Promotion Agency, Alhaji Mohammed Ahmed Kontagora, speaking on the reasons for the establishment of the industries, said shea trees are found in all parts of the state, except Minna and Bida.  
He said: “You know, shea nuts are still being picked from the bush because there is no country in the West African sub-region that has succeeded in domesticating shea trees yet. Though we are working with a research institute, NIFOR, on how to domesticate these trees, we are yet to achieve our target. In the past women will go to the bush, pick large quantity of shea nuts, dry them and sell to middle men at give away prices.
“The present administration in the state decided to establish shea butter villages’ at all strategic places where shea butter business is striving, starting with the three senatorial zones. When the industries were built and equipped, we handed them over to women groups that operate them. These women are trained on how to handle the equipment we provided for them and also on the advanced method of processing the butter. They are now processing and producing high quality shea butter in those industries.
“We did not stop at that as we linked them up with domestic and foreign shea butter buyers that are doing business directly with them. Such groups source for the nuts from the bush, processing them and produce the butter on their own without government involvement. When we get bulk buyers we link them up. As we are talking now, they cannot even be able to meet the demand our buyers because the business is striving.”
Alhaji Kontagora said the state government was planning to establish, equip and transfer such industries to registered groups in the state as a way of empowering the people to enhance shea butter production in the state, adding: “Such industries are the first of their kind in the West African sub-region. The industries will strive more when we succeed in domesticating the shea butter trees as that will seriously enhance production.”
He said that shea butter as a major raw material for pharmaceuticals, confectionaries and cosmetic industries, is in high demand all over the world.
At the Farin Shinge shea butter village near, women were seen busy working on  their  schedules. Conducting Daily Trust round the factory, Suleiman Umar Uchau said when the shea nuts are brought from the bush, they are boiled in large pots after which they are dried and the nuts broken to remove the shells.
Continuing, he said: “We then wash the nuts with clean water from our borehole and dry them. We then grind the nuts which turn to black liquid substance. We then turn the black substance into big bowels and keep turning the substance until it turns white, thereby producing the white cake. We would return the white cake to fire and boil it again until it turns into shea butter. We allow the hot butter to cool down then we put the butter into different sizes of containers ready for sell.
“We sell the 20 liters container N9,000. Some do not even need to come here and buy. They have our phone numbers, they call from Lagos, Port Harcourt and other places to place order and pay the money into our group joint account. We waybill their goods through commercial vehicles to them and they are always delivered. There is a plan to train 50 other women soon.”
Other women at the factory lamented that if Kontagora local government had shown interest in the programme, more youth would have been mobilized to go  to the bush to pick shea nuts and be supplying the factory with it as large quantity of the nuts are wasting away in the bush, especially at areas the women cannot reach.
But Secretary to Kontagora local government, Alhaji Shehu Jibo, said the council has supported the industry by not asking them to pay tax and that two desk officers from the council have been attached to the industry. He, however, refused to make further comments.
Sectional Head of the council’s Social Development Department, Hajiya Raliya Abdullahi, said the local government authority has no funds yet to assist in the development of the project.