PZ Cussons Foundation has donated the PZ Nasara Shea-Butter processing facility to a women’s co-operative group in Tungan Wawa in Kontagora Local Government Area, Niger State.
A trustee of the Foundation and wife of a former president of Nigeria, Justice Fati Lami Abubakar, said the project executed by the Foundation was an intervention to empower women economically through encouragement of rural enterprise. The new facility is to upgrade their traditional method of production and make them internationally competitive, she added.
She noted that it will bring together local processors under one umbrella and organize them into a more formal structure as enterprise. The facility consists of raw material store, structures for drying, roasting, blending, finished goods store, borehole and other equipment and machineries.
The Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, lauded the Board of Trustee of the Foundation for the project in the state, noting that it will support the effort of the government in diversifying the economy of the state by enhancing productivity in agro allied endeavours at rural levels as well as help in poverty eradication and employment.
Nigeria accounts for 57 per cent of global shea-butter production with a total value of about $3.8 billion. This project is part of the on-going effort by the Niger State Government to sensitize private sector players and other development partners to awaken rural populace especially women to tap into that potential. It has large market in the USA.
