Northerners urged to support shea factory

Mr Emmanuel Abu Alhassan, National Secretary of the Association of Shea Nut Farmers, Processors and Buyers of Ghana, has appealed to people in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions to support the establishment of the Nut For Growth (N4G), a shea nut processing company under construction at Duunyin along to the Tamale/Salaga highway.

He said the company would bring opportunities to the three regions including jobs, expand businesses and create good marketing avenues for the shea nut pickers and buyers.

Mr Alhassan was speaking to the GNA in Tamale on Wednesday to throw more light on the opportunities and challenges in the shea nut industry especially the Nuts For Growth Company.

He called on other shea nut dealers in the northern part of the country to direct all their business activities to the new company when it officially starts operations in late September and that other sister companies that were thwarting the progress of Nut For Growth must desist since such acts would continue to derail the development of the three regions.

Mr Alhassan said the Association had thrown its support for the new company because it was likely to create healthy competition saying, “In healthy competition, farmers and buyers of shea nut will benefit. We will therefore expose any group or company that would attempt to thwart efforts of N4G”.

He said shea nut was one of the cash crops which had so many advantages with brighter prospects and that when the sector was fully supported, many more youths would no longer migrate to the south for greener pastures.

The Secretary said shea nut was a crop often referred to as the cocoa crop of the northern regions and that the only way the crop could be used to alleviate poverty was when a processing company like N4G was supported.

Mr Alhassan said even though the company had not started full operations, more than 100 persons were engaged in its construction by both locals and expatriates.

He described the Chief Executive Officer of the N4G, Mrs Dora Harborsutei Torwiseh, as a very honest woman who could propel development in the three regions.