Fuji Oil Ghana on March 21st, 2025, has taken a significant step to strengthen its shea supply chain by donating a 300-metric-tonne well-built warehouse to women-led cooperatives in Fumbisi, a community in the Builsa North District of Ghana’s Upper East Region.

The initiative, part of its sustainability program “Tebma Kandu” (translated as “push me and I will climb in Mampruli”), aims to resolve chronic storage challenges faced by women who handpick and process shea fruits into kernels for commercial use.

The donation comes as Fuji Oil Ghana, who requires 50,000 metric tonnes of shea kernels annually to operate its Techiman processing plant at full capacity, seeks to deepen partnerships with local producers.

For years, women in Fumbisi have grappled with post-harvest losses due to inadequate storage, forcing many to sell kernels hastily at lower prices. The new facility will enable cooperatives to store surplus kernels safely, negotiate better prices, and align supplies with Fuji Oil’s demand cycles.



Addressing the media at the sideline of the handover ceremony, the Managing Director of Fuji Oil Ghana Limited, Mr. Ronny Voorspools highlighted the rationale behind such an initiative for female rural farmers.



Implemented in collaboration with Green World Initiative (GWI), a sustainability-focused NGO, the project underscores Fuji Oil’s strategy to buy directly from women-led groups.



“…a couple of years ago (4 to 5 years), we thought that our module of procuring shea kernels was not enough. We want to give back to the women of the Shea belt that are working hard to collect shea nuts. That is why we came out with the shea sustainability program. We have developed something that is unique in our business combining the procurement and sustainability into one department. We as much as possible buy directly from the women. If one woman is collecting 2 bags of kernels per year, that requires about 250, 000 women to supply to us, so if you ask me how many suppliers do you have, it is about 250,000 women.



We have grouped them (women who pick shea kernels ) into cooperatives and year after year we create more. We approach the leaders of each cooperative directly, negotiate with them and procure the shea kernels we need directly from them.

Last year when we concluded the 2023 season, we noticed that one of the cooperatives here and that is Fumbisi was the record holder for the whole year. They collected by themselves more than 3,000 bags of shea kernels. When we met with them, we were discussing challenges and how we can help to solve them. The 3,000 bags per season aggregated was not a challenge but the storage space for the aggregation was the problem. As a kind of bonus and to help them to climb higher levels, we decided that we will donate to them a very nice warehouse.” he said.

Mr Job Osei who is the procurement and sustainability manager at Fuji Oil Ghana limited allays fears of the warehouse being used for different purposes.

“…the warehouse is fully donated to the women for them to use it to generate income. Apart from the shea activities, they are supposed to use this warehouse to store other products that they cultivate like groundnut, maize, soya beans, etc.

They can do that on a commercial basis to enhance their income levels and that is the kind of support we give to the women.” he advises.

Mr Wisdom Doe, the CEO of Green World Initiative justifies the partnership of his outfit with Fuji Oil Ghana Limited to execute programs like the newly built warehouse for the Fumbisi cooperative.

According to him “we work together with Fuji to implement their programs on the field. We are more like implementing partners interfacing with Fuji Oil Ghana Limited and the women at the local level. We organize the women into cooperatives, give them capacity building, help them to be more efficient and also link them to the activities with Fuji Oil. The cooperatives are in all parts of Northern Ghana.

Mr. Wisdom Doe assures the Fumbisi Cooperative, they are not going to renege provided they are alive.

“We are in a value chain to create value at the bottom of the pyramid helping smallholder farmers improve their livelihood. We will continue to do this as long as we have life.” he ended.

The women cooperative through their president madam Lucy Abolimbisa thanked Fuji Oil Ghana Limited for the warehouse and pledged their commitment to working hard and improving the quality of the Shea nut they supply yearly.