Cabinet to Receive Full Proposal on Women’s Bank Soon - President Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama says the government is at an advanced stage in establishing a dedicated Women’s Bank.

According to him, Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang—who is leading the process—has reported significant progress, noting that a comprehensive proposal detailing the bank’s structure and mandate will soon be presented to cabinet.

The president disclosed this during the official launch of the Sheapark Resource Hub Project at the Wa Naa’s Palace in the Upper West Regional capital, Wa.

Mahama said the Women’s Bank would primarily support women entrepreneurs, particularly those in the northern sector where the shea industry remains a major economic activity.

“In the Upper West Region, the Women’s Bank will especially focus on mothers working in the shea nut industry,” he emphasized.

The initiative is being spearheaded by Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin and Professor Kwame Addo as part of broader efforts to strengthen the shea sector through value addition.

Mahama explained that during shea nut picking seasons, the bank would provide small loans to women to facilitate their work. The funding would enable cooperatives to hire tricycles to transport the women deeper into the bush to gather shea nuts, easing the physical strain of carrying heavy loads.

He stressed that women were not just beneficiaries but the backbone of the initiative, given their longstanding contributions to the shea industry.

The president revealed that government had already supplied 3,000 pairs of Wellington boots and 3,200 gloves to women in the Upper West Region’s shea sector to protect them from snake and scorpion bites—common dangers encountered during nut collection.

Mahama described the Sheapark Hub as a world-class, phased agro-industrial ecosystem built on sustainability, innovation, and inclusivity. The facility will house modern processing units for cosmetic, food, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical shea products.

The proposed Hub will also feature quality control laboratories, training centres, storage facilities, warehousing, logistics services, solar power systems, water treatment and recycling plants, business incubation units, cooperative aggregation services, and export support facilities.

When fully operational, the Sheapark ecosystem is projected to empower over 7,000 women in the Upper West Region and generate thousands of additional jobs for young people.

Beyond shea, the hub is expected to drive value chains for related commodities such as groundnuts, soybeans, sorghum, dawadawa, cotton, and honey.

Mahama noted that the Sheapark Resource Project aligns with the government’s Reset Agenda, which prioritises value addition before export. This approach, he said, would be extended to commodities including shea nuts, cashews, cotton, cassava, oil palm, and minerals.