The President of the African Cashew Alliance (ACA), Babatola Faseru, has reiterated the commitment of the Alliance to empower women and the youths to increase cashew yields across African countries. He made this commitment while speaking at the annual 17th African Cashew Alliance (ACA) Conference in Dakar, Senegal with the theme; “Sustaining the African cashew industry: Assessing the journey so far and looking forward”.
Faseru, who is also the Osun State Commissioner for Agriculture said that the annual conference is not just a mere gathering of major players in the cashew value chain but a coming together of cashew industry stakeholder which comprises of private sector business owners, producers, processors, exporters, public sector to restrategise and strengthen alliances for the progress and productivity of the cashew industry globally. He noted that the theme of the conference reflected on the sustainability agenda progress, identify the challenges faced and restrategise for the future. According to him, “If you empower the woman, you empower the family, hence the African Cashew Alliance intends to increase funding, training and capacity development and make the cashew industry attractive to the youth, thereby making them engaged, productive and self-reliant.
Faseru further reiterates the Alliance’s commitment to sensitise all African countries on the need to tap into the goldmine (cashew) and increase productivity in the value chain to build a sustainable economy, which is driven by women and youth. He, thereby, charged the President of the Consultative International Cashew Council (CICC), to create an African Cashew Development Fund. He noted that the Development Banks such as the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) and the Afrexim Bank would be ready to fund it, which would metamorphose to a Cashew Transformation Revolution Agenda, which would transform the African Cashew processing capacity and build a system whereby the Africa’s Raw Cashew Nuts (RCN) are processed in Africa instead of shipping the RCN to Vietnam and India.
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