SeKaf Ghana Limited is a Ghanaian owned and operated social enterprise that produces unrefined organic shea butter and shea-based bath and beauty products under the brand name TAMA®.
TAMA is registered with Ghana's Foods and Drugs Authority, licensed by Ghana Standards Authority and notified in the EU Cosmetic Products Notification Portal and with Health Canada. The shea butter in TAMA products is certified organic by ECOCERT and USDA National Organic Program.
The Company is based in Tamale in northern Ghana, an underdeveloped region with limited economic opportunities. SeKaf has a dual objective of producing high quality products, while improving the economic status of rural women through innovative and sustainable employment and education.
SeKaf Ghana Limited is a global supplier of natural and affordable shea-based bath and beauty products sourced through an ethical and environmentally friendly supply chain.
Founded in 2003 as an export company with a varied portfolio of West African raw materials, SeKaf Ghana Ltd. began to specialize in shea in 2004. In 2006, it became a social enterprise with a focus on improving the economic status of rural women shea pickers and shea processors.
The company inaugurated the SeKaf Shea Butter Village in Kasalgu, Tamale, in August 2008 where surrounding village women assemble and process premium quality unrefined shea butter in a controlled environment.
SeKaf collaborates closely with the SeKaf Shea Butter Village women's cooperative and currently buys shea nuts from approximately 5,000 women.
SeKaf aspires to become Africaʼs largest manufacturer of certified organic and fair trade shea butter-based bath and beauty products that uses world-class system of processing, packaging, quality control and logistics.
To provide customers with affordable, high quality, natural personal care products which are made with certified organic and fair trade sheabutter while helping to lift indigenous women out of poverty.
We believe in equity throughout the entire shea value chain, and that everyone deserves to work in good conditions and be compensated fairly. We treat all of our stakeholders - our shea pickers, shea butter processors, employees, and customers- with respect and dignity.
We believe in sustainability of the environment and for our business. We aim to protect and preserve shea trees, harvest shea fruits with organic, environmentally friendly methods, and educate women and others on improved methods for shea processing. By sharing our advices and collaborating with other industry members, we promote sustainable solutions to meet the world’s growing demand for shea.
We believe in partnering with women to break the cycle of rural poverty in northern Ghana. Women are a crucial, yet undervalued link in the shea supply chain. By providing them with technical and life skills, increasing market access, and paying a premium on quality, organic nuts, we create sustainable
income-generating solutions to empower women in their businesses and their lives
We believe in quality in all that we do: from providing our women working at the SeKaf Shea Butter Village with clean and well-equipped processing facilities to delivering the finest quality shea bath and beauty products to our customers. We ensure the highest levels of quality by investing in innovative research and development, using only 100% pure, unrefined organic shea butter certified by ECOCERT, and testing with top industry certfication bodies to guarantee strict international standards for TAMA® products.
Women are the core beneficiaries of SeKaf’s social impact and the heart of its business.
We focus on securing sustainable livelihoods (economic opportunities) for poor, rural women by integrating them into an ethical and sustainable shea supply chain. We train them in organic shea harvesting and high-yield shea butter processing, paying them a premium for their nuts and services. Now we are also piloting programmes to ensure that they achieve the maximum benefit from their activities through additional education in financial literacy and life skills.
Our impact doesn’t stop there. From field to consumer, SeKaf impacts the entire shea value chain: securing rural livelihoods, growing the local economy and providing locally-made, high-quality, shea-based bath and beauty products to Ghana and the world.
As a social enterprise in the shea industry, we focus equally and depend on people, the planet and profit. Our business cannot grow sustainably without supporting the women or protecting the shea trees and nuts they harvest. SeKaf uses this philosophy to ensure profitability for the entire shea value chain and all of our stakeholders.
The Village Savings & Loans Associations are community groups that allow women to save on a weekly basis and have access to credit. Through these groups, they are able to save the premium SeKaf pays them for their organic nuts, access loans for school fees, grow their own businesses and cope with emergencies. SeKaf uses these groups to provide education in financial literacy which gives the women greater financial independence, empowering them in their households and communities.
SeKaf has piloted this program with the women who process shea butter at our Shea Butter Village in Kasalgu and women in Wayamba, a shea collecting community. The company is hoping to extend the scheme to more communities as demonstrated by the positive effect it has had on the 164 women who have participated so far.
Women reached
Communities we operate in
Women in the Shea Butter Village
Women trained and certified organic
Women in Village Savings and Loans Associations
