Kwara: First Sheabutter Processing Plant In Nigeria

The birth of thing brings joy, but the birth of Nigeria’s first Shea butter plant brings opportunities to both job seekers and investors. The just-concluded Sheabutter plant project started in 2012 and has been lingering in the hands of the previous administration. The shea butter plant is located at Wozibe, Kaiama LGA Kwara State which is ranked as the second most popullated Sheabutter tree location. The government of Governor Abdulrazaq made it a priority to complete the project as it will birth a better Kwara State.

The project is a timely one, as the state government is on the lookout to boost industrialization in the state. The Sheabutter plant was made possible by the joint effort of the World Trade Organization, Nigerian Export Promotion Council and the host state, Kwara.

This new establishment will bring a revolution in the cumbersome, time consuming and unhygienic process of producing Sheabutter.

The plant was commissioned on November 2020. Governor Abdulrazaq was represented by the Commissioner for Enterprise, Alhaji Abdulwahab Agbaje, who said the government will provide an enabling environment and appoint capable hands to ensure the smooth running to the plant.

The Executive Director and Chief Executive of
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) Olusegun Awolowo was represented by Mr Afolabi Bello. He appreciated the government for completing a long-abandoned project and creating an enabling environment for the factory. He also said the project has a hand full of benefits, some of which he listed are: Empowerment of Youths and Rural women folks along the Shea Processing Value Chain, provision of Infrastructural Facilities to the hosting community, accelerate Government presence in the rural community, improvement of non-oil export revenue and foreign exchange earnings.

Still rendering appreciation, was the District head of wazobia, Alhaji Mohammed Ibn Mohammed said he was grateful to the government for a display of their potentials to the world and for bringing empowerment to Youths and women in Sheabutter production.