Women at the heart of Ghana’s shea industry are calling for better prices, more accessible financing and stronger protection of shea trees as the country seeks to transform the sector from a largely raw-material trade into a higher-value industry serving global markets.
The concerns were highlighted around the 2026 World Shea Expo in Tamale, where women processors and industry stakeholders argued that those who collect, process and trade shea continue to capture only a limited share of the value generated by the international market. The Expo, held from September 15 to 17 under the theme “From Local Commodity to Global Brand: Accelerating Women and Youth-led Value Addition in Shea,” brought together women’s cooperatives, processors, exporters, buyers, financial institutions and government agencies.
For many women, access to working capital is one of the immediate constraints. Hajia Rabiatu Abukari, President of the Ghana Shea Employers Association, said processors can have buyers and production opportunities but lack sufficient funds to purchase the quantities of nuts required to fulfil contracts. She called for affordable, seasonal financing products that reflect the shea business cycle, particularly because some buyers require processors to complete production before payment.
The financing problem is closely connected to market structure. Women have traditionally dominated shea collection, processing and trading, but much of the higher-value activity including product development, packaging, branding, certification and access to premium international markets has taken place outside the producing communities. Expo organisers and government officials are therefore pushing for women to move beyond primary processing into manufacturing, exporting and ownership of brands and distribution networks.
The environmental challenge is equally significant. Women depend on naturally occurring shea trees for the raw material that supports their businesses, yet bushfires, tree cutting and competing land uses are reducing access to mature trees in parts of northern Ghana. For the women whose livelihoods depend directly on harvesting shea nuts, protecting the resource base is therefore inseparable from protecting household incomes.
The economic opportunity is substantial. Ghana currently produces an estimated 130,000–150,000 tonnes of shea nuts annually, valued at about 350million,comparedwithapproximatelyUS118 million in 2023. Unprocessed shea nuts generated $177 million in non-traditional agricultural export earnings, while Ghana was ranked the world's leading exporter of shea butter in 2025. Government and industry estimates suggest production could potentially rise to 400,000 tonnes annually, with a value of approximately $640 million, if investment expands in processing, mechanised harvesting, storage and logistics.
The global market provides further room for expansion. The global shea market is projected to exceed $3 billion by 2030, creating an opportunity for Ghana to capture more value by processing and branding products domestically rather than relying heavily on exports of raw nuts. More than one million women and young people are involved across Ghana's shea value chain, according to the government, making the sector particularly important for rural employment and women's economic participation.
Government has responded with a broader value-addition agenda. Vice President Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang said women should receive a greater share of the value generated by the industry and called for investment that would allow them to move into aggregation, processing, manufacturing and exports. She also pointed to the planned Women's Development Bank as a potential source of more accessible finance for women-led businesses. At the Expo, she also participated in the planting of specially selected shea seedlings, highlighting research into improved varieties and the need to protect and expand Ghana's shea resource base.
NBF Insight
Ghana's shea opportunity is no longer just about producing more shea nuts, It is about determining who captures the value between the tree and the final consumer.
The women who collect and process the nuts are at the foundation of the industry, yet limited finance, weak market power, and environmental pressures can prevent them from moving into the more profitable stages of the value chain.
The next phase therefore requires three things to move together: protect the shea trees, finance the women, and build more processing capacity close to where the nuts are produced.
If Ghana can connect those three elements with quality standards, branding, certification and export-market access, shea can evolve from a rural livelihood commodity into a stronger industrial value chain while allowing more of the value generated by the global shea market to remain in the communities that produce it.
