By Caesar Abagali
Konjeihi, (UWR), Feb. 2, GNA – Baraka Impact Limited, a private, mission-driven Ghanaian/Canadian business, has inaugurated the Konjeihi Women’s Enterprise Centre to enhance their shea butter processing capacity to serve over 10,000 customers from North America and around the globe.
The Centre, which is the heart of Baraka’s Shea butter and Kombo butter production, provides seasonal direct employment to nearly 200 local women, and creates an income stream to over 500 rural women in communities across the Upper West Region.
Speaking during the opening of the Centre, Professor Wayne Dunn, Founder of Baraka Impact Limited, said the Centre also provided potable water for the community and other valuable infrastructure that supported the community women and their income generation activities.
The Centre, he said, was deliberately designed for Shea butter processing for Baraka Impact, and a valuable community resource that enhanced women livelihood activities all-year round.
Mr Theo Apronti, Manager of Operation, Baraka Impact, said the centre was a testament to the dedication of their community to harness the potential within their natural resources for the betterment of all.
He described the Centre as not just a facility but a hub for skill development where individuals would learn the art and science of Shea butter production.
The Manager appealed to the community to guard against cutting down of Shea trees, adding that by ensuring sustainable environmental practices, they would not only ensure the longevity of the venture but also be contributing to global effort towards a greener and healthier planet.
Madam Gifty Lagejua, a member of the community and the brain behind the establishment of Konjeihi Women Enterprise Centre, thanked the Chief of Konjeihi, Naa Hashim Yakubu Soaleh II and his elders for donating a piece of land for the establishment of the Centre.
She thanked Baraka Impact for impacting the lives of the women in the community in so many ways through the Centre as it enhanced the quality of Shea butter produced by the women, thereby, making it attractive for both domestic and international market.
Madam Alimata Adam, one of the Women Beneficiaries, noted that the establishment of the Centre and the ready market provided them had helped reduce the distances they used to travel to market centers to sell their Shea butter and Shea products.
“It has also increased our income and we can now better support the education of our children”, she said.
Naa Hashim Yakubu Soaleh II, the Chief of Konjeihi, pleaded with community members against the cutting down of the Shea trees, saying should they do that the Centre would become a “White Elephant” and the community would lose.
He called for unity among women of the community to ensure they worked to expand the services of the Centre to cover more women.
GNA