Fairtrade Africa, Kosmos Innovation Centre launch project to boost shea value chain

Tamale: Fairtrade Africa in collaboration with Kosmos Innovation Centre has launched Strengthening the Shea Value Chain in Northern Ghana project.The year-long project (August 2024 to July 2025) seeks to enhance the shea value chain in the northern parts of the country, focusing on job sustainability, improvement, and creation and targeting over 20,000 individuals.It is also to develop at least 5,000 youth in work and sustain 680 smallholder farmers enabling agricultural cooperatives and youth in their catchment areas to be empowered to contribute to value creation in the shea value chain.Mr Nicholas Ofori, Senior Project Officer - Portfolio Products - Fairtrade Africa, speaking during the launch of the project in Tamale, said it was to support actors in the shea value chain in the northern sector to have good livelihoods where they could support themselves and families.Mr Joel Odeh, Product Development Lead - Fairtrade Africa - West Africa Network, said empowering the youth was crucial and required s ustaining existing jobs and creating new ones, adding improving existing jobs and skills-sets is as equally important as creating outright new jobs.'He noted that the youth often migrated from rural areas to urban centres in search of employment, which posed its own challenges and said the project would empower beneficiaries to create jobs and to give sustainable options to the youth.Mr Titus Michael Beyuoh, Business Development Manager at Kosmos Innovation Centre outlined the journey of Kosmos Innovation Centre and emphasised the project's focus on job creation.He reiterated that 'Entrepreneurs should focus on sustaining, scaling up, improving, and building capacity to create more value and jobs in line with Kosmos Innovation Centre's job creation drive.'Source: Ghana News Agency