The Ghana Trade and Livelihoods Coalition (GTLC), has initiated a project to mobilize sheanut and sheabutter producers and group them into Clusters for easy targeting. The initiative was informed by the findings in a research dubbed “Harnessing Shea Wealth Through Cluster Initiatives” conducted by the GTLC. The exercise took the GTLC team to a number of districts and metropolitan assemblies in the three northern regions: the Sissala East in the Upper West Region, the Talensi-Nabdam in the Upper East Region and the Tamale Metropolitan and Yendi of the Northern Region. The team, according to a statement issued in Accra, held a series of discussions with women groups in connection with the challenges confronting the shea business and how to identify the prospects and opportunities in the sheanut sector. “The focus of the engagements was on strengthening and empowering these groups to better understand the relevance of group action in enhancing their sheanut and sheabutter production businesses,” National Coordinator of the GTLC, Mr. Ibrahim Akalbila said. He said the initiative was in recognition of the “need for the individual members to work as a group in not only finding solutions to the challenges confronting them but also in identifying and taking advantage of the prospects the sector holds.” On the subject of effective cluster development, “the GTLC research study identified the following as some of the critical issues necessary for transforming the industry into a profitable one: factor conditions such as appropriate infrastructure, use of modern technology, resource availability (shea tree) and access to credit; demand conditions; competition; as well as supporting private and public sector institutions and agencies.” According to Mr. Akalbila, the GTLC together with the groups are far advanced in the process of developing a medium-to-long term strategy for domesticating the shea resource. He said the discussions with the women were a lynchpin on which to found a series of actions towards the realisation of the objective. “When this is done, the overbearing challenges confronting women groups in the shea business, including obsolete picking equipment, manual processing equipment, depleting stocks, as well as attacks by wild animals and reptiles are expected to be addressed,” the statement added.