Plans for Women’s Bank are at an advanced stage - Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama has announced that preparations are far advanced for the establishment of a Women’s Bank, aimed at expanding access to finance for women entrepreneurs across the country.

He said Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, who is leading the initiative, had briefed him on the progress made so far and indicated that a comprehensive proposal outlining the bank’s structure and objectives would soon be presented to Cabinet for consideration.

President Mahama disclosed this when he officially launched the Sheapark Resource Hub Project at the Wa Naa’s Palace in Wa, the Upper West Regional capital.

According to him, the Women’s Bank will place particular emphasis on supporting women in northern Ghana, where the shea industry remains a major source of livelihood.

“In the Upper West Region, the Women’s Bank is going to target mothers who are in the shea nut industry,” the President said.

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

President Mahama explained that during shea nut picking seasons, women would be given access to small-scale credit to support their activities. The financing, he said, would enable cooperatives to hire tricycles to transport women deeper into shea-growing areas and convey the harvested nuts, easing the physical burden of carrying heavy loads.

He stressed that women were not just beneficiaries of the programme but the backbone of the shea industry, having sustained it over several decades.

As part of immediate support measures, the President disclosed that the government has already distributed 3,000 pairs of Wellington boots and 3,200 gloves to women engaged in the shea industry in the Upper West Region. These items are intended to protect them from hazards such as snake and scorpion bites during harvesting.

President Mahama described the Sheapark Resource Hub as a world-class, phased agro-industrial ecosystem built on sustainability, innovation and inclusion. He said the facility would host modern shea processing plants for cosmetic, food, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products.

The Hub will also feature quality control laboratories, training and capacity-building centres, storage and logistics facilities, warehousing, market access services, solar-powered energy systems, water treatment and recycling plants, business incubation services, cooperative aggregation and export facilitation support.

When fully developed, the Sheapark ecosystem is expected to empower more than 7,000 women in the Upper West Region and create thousands of additional jobs for the youth.

Beyond shea, President Mahama said the Hub would anchor value chains for other commodities, including groundnuts, soybeans, sorghum, dawadawa, cotton and honey.

He added that the Sheapark Resource Hub aligns with the government’s Reset Agenda, which prioritises value addition before export. This approach, he said, will be extended nationwide to commodities such as shea nuts, cashew, cotton, cassava, oil palm and minerals.