I was in Abuja, the nation’s capital together with the Dallatun Kalgo Alhaji Abubakar Bagudu Usman to attend a meeting unrelated to the Shea business and
BY Yakubu Ahmed-BK
Shea butter is a money spinner and Nigeria is one of the countries endowed with it in abundance. Many countries are raking in billions but the sad story is that in Nigeria 50% of the shea butter endowment has remained untapped.
I was in Abuja, the nation’s capital together with the Dallatun Kalgo Alhaji Abubakar Bagudu Usman to attend a meeting unrelated to the Shea business and because the Dallatu is the Public Relations Officer of the National Shea Products Association of Nigeria (NASPAN), he literally dragged me to pay a visit to the Abuja office. And I am glad I did.
I met the National President of NASPAN Alhaji Mohammed Ahmed Kontagora – a very likable and approachable fellow whose knowledge about Shea products and the business angle of it is deep.
I took him on what efforts are being made to ensure that the Shea resources are not depleted by the incessant exploitation of Shea butter in the wild. He acknowledged that there is indeed the need to plant Shea trees in order to augment the ones that are being tapped. He said the gestation period takes more than thirty years but pointed out that there are efforts, through scientific intervention, to reduce the timeline to about fifteen years.
He said there is, at the moment, no cause for alarm as the Shea resources in Nigeria are not under any threat of being tapped out. According to him, Nigeria is so endowed that only 50% has so far been exploited.
Ibrahim Bagudu of Kebbi state is an executive member of NASPAN.