President John Dramani Mahama has indicated that plans to establish a Women’s Bank are well underway.
He said that Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, who has been spearheading the initiative, had informed him that great progress had been made and that a presentation on the bank’s structure and aims will be submitted to the cabinet for review.
President Mahama announced this while officially launching the Sheapark Resource Hub Project at Wa Naa’s Palace in Wa, the Upper West Regional capital.
He stated that the Women’s Bank will encourage female entrepreneurs, particularly in the northern sector, where the shea industry remained an important source of income for many women.
“In the Upper West Region, the Women’s Bank is going to target mothers who are in the shea nut industry,” he stated.
Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin and Professor Kwame Addo are championing the program, which is part of the government’s drive to develop the shea industry through value addition.
President Mahama stated that during shea nut collecting seasons, ladies would be given little credits to allow them to go into the bush and collect nuts.
He explained that the facility will enable cooperatives to rent tricycles to take women farther into the jungle and return with the shea nuts, relieving them of the stress of carrying large loads on their heads.
He underlined that women were not only the initiative’s beneficiaries, but also its foundation, given their long-standing participation in the shea sector.
According to the president, the government has already given 3,200 gloves and 3,000 pairs of Wellington boots to women working in the Upper West Region’s shea business.
He clarified that these would help shield them from snake and scorpion bites, which are a serious risk when gathering shea nuts.
President Mahama stated the Sheapark Hub was envisioned as a world-class phased agro-industrial ecosystem built on sustainability, innovation, and inclusivity.
It would house state-of-the-art shea processing facilities for food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and nutraceutical manufacturing.
Quality control labs, training and capacity-building facilities, storage and logistics facilities, warehousing, direct market access services, solar-powered energy solutions, water treatment and recycling plants, business incubation, cooperative aggregation, and export facilitation would all be housed in the Hub.
When the Sheapark ecosystem reaches its full potential, it is anticipated to empower over 7,000 women in the Upper West and generate thousands of new jobs for young people.
He stated that the Hub would anchor value chains not only for shea but also for allied products such as groundnuts, soybeans, sorghum, dawadawa, cotton, and honey.
President Mahama said that the Sheapark Resource Project is consistent with the government’s Reset Agenda, which emphasises adding value to products before exporting.
This value-added effort would include a wide range of commodities across the country, including shea nuts, cashews, cotton, cassava, oil palm, and minerals.
Source: newsthemegh.com