DEVELOPMENT OF PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY FOR SHEA BUTTER IN NIGERIA
One of the objectives of ARDP is to grow industrialization especially in agro-allied areas of the Northern States of Nigeria. Shea Nuts from the locally available shea trees were identified as important economic products across many states but which lack technology for their processing and value addition. Production presently is by traditional methods which are grossly inefficient, with low capacity. Most of the nuts are therefore exported raw to neighbouring countries in the ECOWAS region and beyond. No factory exists in Nigeria processing the nuts to Sheabutter, unlike Burkina Faso, Ghana etc.
Technical studies were therefore commissioned by ARDP and the financial feasibilities are being carried out. Medium scale plant of 4 Tons/day shea-butter utilizing 10-12 Tons/day of nuts has been identified as very viable. Total investment is in the region of N100.0 million. ARDP shall soon hold an Investors Forum (Minna, August 14th 2017) with potential private sector businesses to facilitate the establishment of these pioneer factories.
ARDP is also addressing the complete value chain by bringing support for the shea tree propagation, nuts collection by rural women, butter processing into end user products for the cosmetics and the food industries in Nigeria and overseas. This will surely bring about women empowerment, employment generation, foreign exchange earnings, climate change mitigation and other opportunities.