Empowering Women in Ghana: Dora Torwiseh Journey with Nuts for Growth

[00:00:00] Today you're going to hear the remarkable story of a woman from Ghana whose vision and determination is transforming an age-old industry. Now Dora Torwiseh, the CEO of Nuts for Growth is redefining the potential of Sheer Nuts. Now this is a resource that's sourced commonly from Africa and is in high demand worldwide.

[00:00:24] You can find Sheer Nuts in a lot of products such as body creams and lotions. You may even recall that in season 4 of the Sound of Accra Podcast. We had a sponsor called Honam Naturals which is a Ghanaian based organic skincare brand stocked in Walmart, Amazon and in some independent outlets across the world. They also have a number of products which contain the vital ingredient Sheer Butter.

[00:00:52] Dora has done amazingly well to create opportunities for thousands of ladies in the process of running her business. Now let's get into a story. The Torres' Air story begins in the Tumi region of Ghana's Upper West near the Burkina Faso border. It's an area marked by small-scale farming and limited economic opportunities. Now poverty was widespread and educations were low in that region. But the region had something valuable. It had Sheer Nuts, right?

[00:01:21] And everyone knows that Sheer Nuts is widely found in the northern part of Ghana. Now these nuts grow wild and sheer trees and have been collected by women in the community for generations. Imagine being woken up at 3 or 4 a.m. as a child to go pick Sheer Nuts with your parents. These were the words of Dora in an interview. Now despite the hard work, the income her family made from selling Sheer Nuts was enough to send her to school. An opportunity that didn't come often enough in her community.

[00:01:51] Now Dora took full advantage of this opportunity and excelled in her academics. This led to her ultimately landing corporate jobs in the southern part of Ghana in Accra, working for the likes of Nestle. Although she achieved success in the corporate world, her heart was in her community and her roots lied in her child. Her back to getting involved with Sheer Nuts. She lacked fulfillment in her office job and took a plunge into entrepreneurship.

[00:02:19] Next is what happened to a lot of my guests on the Sound of Accra podcast. Yes, Dora made that brave decision to leave her corporate job and return to the Upper West region of Ghana to make a name in the Sheer Nuts industry. Now the road ahead would surely be tough for Dora, but she was certainly determined to make it work. Dora addressed a critical issue, organization.

[00:02:42] Now in the northern part of Ghana, Sheer Nuts are often collected individually by women and sold to middlemen at unfairly low prices. Now without collective bargaining power or access to international buyers, these women had little control over their livelihoods. Now Dora spent countless days going door to door, visiting community after community, convincing women to come together under one banner.

[00:03:10] Now her next challenge was then finding international buyers. She started by sending samples abroad and pursuing global clients. Now there were setbacks such as potential buyers would sometimes cancel meetings at the last minute, leaving Dora frustrated, but determined. Now finally a breakthrough came when she secured a Dutch buyer who introduced her to the US based agribusiness company Bungie.

[00:03:38] Now today Bungie is one of the Nut for Growth's biggest clients alongside other American commodities such as the giant car jail. Now if we fast forward to today, Nuts for Growth now connects over 80,000 women with global buyers. Absolutely jaw dropping. Dora did not stop there. She invested into infrastructure, building a storage warehouse and a crushing plant to produce sheer nuts into crude butter.

[00:04:08] Now beyond just market access, her company supports the women in other ways such as offering seedlings to grow vegetables and spices during the off season. Now this provides additional income and food security. It's not just about share nuts for Dora. It's about giving these women the tools to sustain themselves throughout the year.

[00:04:29] Now the company is expanding into processing soya beans, primarily for domestic markets and even exporting share cake, a byproduct used as animal feed to countries such as Turkey and China. The crushing plant can handle up to 450 tons per day, a capacity that continues to grow. Now Dora's success in navigating international markets offers valuable lessons for entrepreneurs across Africa. Dora's success in the world.

[00:04:57] She stretches the importance of market research knowing which products are in demand and where. For example, she doesn't make her soya beans product in Brazil, a country with an advanced soya industry, but she does target Brazil with sheer butter as they lack a local supply. Dora says not every product is exportable everywhere, that you need to know what works and where.

[00:05:22] Dora's advice is to understand your market and to leverage your unique strengths here. Now today, Dora Torres-Seer stands as a beacon of hope for community and beyond. Her journey shows how a single individual, armed with vision and perseverance, can transform an industry, even a community, and uplift thousands of lives. From the women collecting sheer nuts in northern Ghana to the shelves of international markets, I mean the impact of nuts for growth is just outstanding. That's all for today's Podbytes.

[00:05:52] If you have a story or unique gardening business insights that you want to share, or if you have feedback from today's episode, please get in touch with us on social media. You can follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, or even on Twitter. Just search for the Sound of a Crowd podcast, or even drop us an email info at the soundofacroud.com. You've been amazing, I've been Agent Daniels. I'll see you in the next episode. Take care.