An image of woman getting a health check. Shot for the Roe V Wade story for The Conversationalists

A lot of shea butter, which can be found in moisturizers and chocolate, originates from West and East Africa. According to the Global Shea Alliance, shea exports from African countries increased about 600 percent in the first two decades of this century.
Most shea nut collectors are rural women. So this should be great news for them. But because of the way the shea nut supply chain operates, most women are at the bottom of the power structure, oftentimes squeezed out by middlemen.
On this episode of The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women (HERO), reporter Nelly Kalu visits a Nigerian nonprofit called Initiative for Gender Empowerment and Creativity. The initiative has innovated the shea nut business to enable women to earn more as shea nut producers.

In 2019, the Danish government disbursed N1.6 billion to help women shea butter producers in Nigeria. But the project closed early and reached very few of the women it targeted. Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi and Nelly Kalu travelled to Oyo and Kwara State to investigate the impact of the project.

Adebimpe, a shea nut collector, is stooped over a huge cast iron pot that has turned black. She is cleaning these pots with her group of shea butter producers in preparation for another shea oil extraction c

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Since the beginning of the pandemic, local conspiracy theories connected to Bill Gates have circulated in Nigeria. Last year a false rumour by The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) spread online in Nigeria and internationally that Gates had bribed the Nigerian government $10 million to pass a law to test vaccines on children.

False messaging of this nature is often successful because it builds on the high levels of mistrust for authorities that are already commonplace in Nigeria. Acc

It is 8am, worship time in Saint Mary’s Catholic Church, Trans Ekulu, Enugu, a city in Nigeria’s Southeast.

Inside the church and around the parish, people have their masks on and try to keep a physical distance from each other. But once outside, masks are off, and they abandon any semblance of adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols.

It’s the same experience in major cities in Nigeria. A look at that scene and you would be correct to think that Nigeria has finally achieved its goal of vaccinat

What’s happening with Covid-19 in Kenya and Nigeria? Why do some people believe it doesn’t exist, or that vaccines can turn you into a vampire? Why are women suspected of contracting Covid-19 being kidnapped by terror groups? Do local cures actually work? Where does all the disinformation come from? And who’s behind it?Presented by Nelly Kalu, written and produced by Nick Raistrick and Nelly Kalu for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting's #AfricaResilienceNetwork project.