A warehouse valued at $11,000 has been inaugurated at Naro in the Nadowli-Kaleo District of the Upper West Region.
The facility is to help Lanzenlanumbu Cooperative Farmers and Marketing Society Limited to leverage on its Shea butter production activities.
Lanzenlanumbu Cooperative won the Warehouse from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) through a competitive application process where interested Farmer-Based Cooperatives (FBCs) and Famaer-Based OrganiSations (FBOs) submitted proposals and provided a 10% Matching Grant.
The provision of the warehouse falls under the Pilot Project Component of the KOICA FBCs/FBOs Project in Northern Ghana.
The Planning Officer of the Nadowli-Kaleo District Assembly, Bilattey Bimi who represented the DCE, Madam Katherine Lankono cut the tape to inaugurate the warehousing facility.
The Planning Officer was happy that Lanzenlanumbu Society has been able to secure a support from KOICA towards the development of Shea butter processing at Naro.
Touching on local economic development activities in the District, he noted that the warehousing project feeds directly into the District’s Local Economic Development Strategy which is aimed at mobilizing local resources to improve the livelihood of people.
Mr. Bimi continued that one of the thematic areas identified in respect of the strategy is Shea nut as one of the resources to be harnessed to improve the economic status of the District.
He mentioned a project being funded by Commonwealth Local Government Forum, through which they are constructing four dry season demonstration gardens in four communities to assist women engaged in vegetable production and pointed that the DCE is ready to liaise with women for further socio-economic development opportunities in the District.
Mr. Bimi said Madam Lankono is trying to organise experience and knowledge sharing activity for women’s groups in the Nadowli-Kaleo District between January and February 2020.
The Program Officer, KOICA Project Implementation Unit (PIU), Fred Addo-Yobo paid tribute to Lanzenlanumbu Cooperative Farmers and Marketing Society Limited led by Madam Ernestina Dagbee for their hard work.
He observed that though the warehouse project is a joint venture between KOICA and Lanzenlanumbu, it will be fully managed by the Society after its inauguration.
The Program Officer intimated that the keen commitment level of the group gave it the leverage to be enrolled into the project for it to be offered further support.
He recalled an earlier competition where the group won a motor-king (tricycle) as a result of out-performing others.
Commenting on the Warehousing facility which has a storage centre with an office, Mr. Addo-Yobo indicated that KOICA through ACDEP had matching fund for 30 FBOs/FBCs in all the five Regions of the North and each of the group could win up to ten thousand Dollars ($10,000.00) to support any project of their choice. He continued that through the Department of Cooperatives (DOC) officer, as well as officers from the National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI) and Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Lanzenlanumbu Cooperative Farmers and Marketing Society Limited was to able actualize or implement the proposal it came up with.
Mr. Addo-Yobo equally praised the group for working hard to raise the counterpart fund of $1,000 defended their presentation [proposal] and were among the few, that is the 30 out of the 210 groups to win the money [ten thousand Dollars].
The Program Officer of KOICA PIU stated that considering time, energy and resources invested in the warehouse, it is incumbent on Lanzenlanumbu to take good care of the facility. He continued the a good stewardship from the group will make it the preferred candidate for further support from KOICA to help expand the Society’s work beyond what it is currently doing to give a leg up to the youth of Naro.
The Team Leader of Association of Church-based Development Projects (ACDEP) under the KOICA Project, Cornelius Kuukaraa who explained the modalities for the pilot project told the gathering that the leadership of selected cooperatives were trained and asked to apply and execute an action plan as a contest before the winners were selected.
The President of Lanzenlanumbu Cooperative and Marketing Society Limited, Madam Ernestina Dagbee traced the history of the group saying it started in 2004 as a Village Savings and Loans Association(VLSA) and metamorphosed into a Cooperative in 2011.
She mentioned Women’s Integrated Development Organization (WIDO) as the mainstay of Association before other partners like United Purpose, Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) as well as others came in to support the group.
Madam Dagbee indicated that through the intervention of the various development partners they (the group in Naro) had been provided with a borehole and had equally been linked to a market internationally and they no longer sell their Shea butter locally. She said KOICA has also supported the group with a motor-king (tricycle) to help them cart Shea nuts from the bush to the house as well as transporting the nuts from other communities to processing center.
Madam Dagbee pointed that she was highly elated that they have gathered again to commission a warehouse by the kind courtesy of ACDEP-KOICA partnership.
Story filed by Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo.
