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The Shea Business Empowerment Program (SBEP) is a transformative three-year initiative led by the Global Shea Alliance in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation under the Young Africa Works strategy. With a $5.7 million investment, SBEP aims to create 90,000 dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for women shea collectors across Ghana’s five northern regions.
The programme focused on empowering young women and strengthening the shea value chain by
addressing key industry barriers such as access to finance, business development, and digitalisation.
Through targeted support to 150 cooperatives and 300 SMEs, SBEP delivered business training, financial
inclusion, digital tools, and market access to transform informal shea activities of women shea
producers into sustainable livelihoods—driving economic growth and improving lives in some of Ghana’s
most underserved communities.
At Green Bliss Foundation, we were excited to be part of something truly transformative: the Shea Business Empowerment Program (SBEP). Implemented by the Global Shea Alliance in partnership with the
Mastercard Foundation, this three-year journey was all about unlocking the power of shea to uplift women and youth across Northern Ghana.
SBEP was more than just a project. It was about giving women and youth across Northern Ghana the
tools, confidence, and opportunities they needed to thrive—while strengthening the shea industry from
the roots up.
At the heart of our work was one simple belief: when local communities lead, sustainable change follows. Through SBEP, we brought that vision to life by supporting 1,800 of the program's target of 90,000 women who knew their land, their craft, and their challenges best.
Women shea producers received hands-on, practical training in cooperative development, group dynamics, leadership, business management, and financial literacy. The goal was to equip women and young people with the skills to work together as a cooperative, lead, manage, and succeed—on their own terms.
The program facilitated access to financial services and linked women producers to financial institutions, helping them build a foundation for investment and growth.
From mobile money to digital inventory tools and
traceability, SBEP helped women shea producers adopt simple, smart technologies that made running a business easier—and opened doors to wider markets. Program participants were onboarded onto Velociti: an Agrocenta digital platform developed to connect women producers and SMEs to markets.
We worked side by side with communities to restore shea parklands—planting, protecting, and caring for the very trees that made their livelihoods possible. It was
environmental stewardship with economic purpose.
Together, We Grew More Than Trees. This kind of change did not happen in isolation. Through strong
collaboration with partners like Advans Ghana, Women for Change, AgroCenta, and theSOFTtribe, we built something bigger than ourselves: a stronger, fairer shea industry that uplifted women, supported
youth, and protected the land.
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