The support formed part of the project dubbed "Empowering women groups in the struggle for survival in some rural communities in the Upper East Region of Ghana," being implemented by Freeworld International in collaboration with the African Ally, two Non-Governmental Organisations.

The one-year project is being funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Germany.

The support also formed part of commitment of the Government of Germany to support rural communities in selected countries including Ghana, to enhance income levels and livelihoods of vulnerable people.

As part of the support, a multipurpose shea butter processing machine has been procured and installed to help the women increase production of high-quality shea butter of international standards.

The women also benefitted from capacity building training on quality shea butter production, financial management through the Village Savings and Loans Association concept, business management skills, record keeping, and alternative livelihoods interventions, among others.

The project linked them to the banks for soft loans.

At an inception meeting held in Bolgatanga, Dr David Anambam, the Technical Director, Freeworld International, said the overall goal of the project was to contribute to the livelihood of women shea butter producers through increasing their productivity and production efficiency and improving the quality of their products.

Dr Anambam explained that the project was informed by research it conducted in 2014 which revealed that the women were producing the shea butter manually, which was not only tiresome and time consuming but did not allow them to produce high quality shea butter in large quantity.

He said climate change was making agriculture, the mainstay of the people in Northern Ghana, unattractive, compelling many to migrate to Southern Ghana, but the shea butter industry with the right investment, had the greatest potentials to provide economic independence to rural communities.

The Technical Director noted that the multipurpose processing machine had the capacity to process about 50 bags of 100 kilogrammes of shea nuts daily, adding "the machine is a complete set and by this we mean it has all the components of shea butter production value chain from cracking of the nuts to the shea butter".

Dr Anambam noted that the project would further train the women and support them to engage in alternative livelihoods such as rearing of small ruminants, guinea fowl, dawadawa, soya bean, rice production and parboiling among others to provide alternative to the beneficiaries to complement the sea butter production.

Dr Eric Ambe Asoh, the Chief Executive Officer, African Ally, explained that due its natural components, there was a lot of demand for shea butter products in the Western countries to produce many products including cosmetics.

He said the project was working to enhance the capacity of the women, to produce quality shea butter and link them to the international markets to increase their income levels.

Mr Sulemana Matthew, the Talensi District Director of the Department of Agriculture, lauded the initiative as a game changer for the women, adding "GIZ has been working in this region for several years, but this is the first time our district has been chosen to benefit from its interventions."

Mrs Juliana Sampana, the Chairperson of the Akoma Cooperative Women Group, said the project will not only reduce the time and cost associated with travelling to far places to process their shea nuts into butter but would increase productivity, income levels and reduce poverty.