Tamale is preparing to host what organisers say will be the largest gathering of the global shea chain when the World Shea Expo 2025 opens September 2–4 at the Modern City Hotel.
More than 8,000 participants are expected, from village-level collectors and cooperatives to international buyers, investors and policy makers.
The event is organised by Savannah Golden Tree Ltd and backed by government and industry partners including GEPA, COCOBOD, Ghana EXIM Bank, COCOSHE, TCDA, PIAA, the Northern Regional Coordination Council and UDS.
Behind the public showcase, state institutions are staking a claim in shaping the sector’s future. COCOBOD, which has administered the shea value chain alongside cocoa since PNDC Law 81 of 1984, is applying decades of breeding and quality assurance expertise through CRIG’s Bole sub-station and extension work in the north.
The board has pushed domestication and improved propagation techniques, extended agronomic training to women cooperatives and supported the construction of modern processing capacity such as the PBC Shea plant at Buipe.
The Tree Crops Development Authority is taking on regulation and coordination as the industry scales. TCDA is working on traceability and a national registration system for farmers and processors to improve transparency, support extension services and make producers visible to markets and financiers.
The authority is also focused on standards, investment facilitation and policy alignment that aim to reduce fragmentation and attract commercial lending and private investment.
Organisers frame the expo as more than trade. Under the theme Empowering Women and Youth-Led SMEs: The Role of Government and Financial Institutions, the three-day programme blends networking with policy dialogue intended to drive value addition, certification and sustainable practices.
With shea used across cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food, the goal is to turn global demand into long-term, higher value opportunities for northern communities.
Ghana’s push to place institutions at the centre of a formerly informal trade reflects a broader strategy of export diversification and inclusive growth.
Women collectors and youth entrepreneurs remain the sector’s backbone, and the expo will test whether recent investments and new regulatory systems can translate into market access and better incomes.
Can this moment in Tamale turn into a lasting shift for Ghana’s shea economy and the communities that depend on it?
Source: newsghana.com.gh
