The name, Big Sheda, is gaining prominence among buyers and sellers of processed cassava batter, which is a key ingredient for akpu, also known as fufu, one of Nigeria’s beloved dishes.
But beyond the cassava batter business, this unassuming community is also a testament to resilience, community spirit and the unwavering strength of women.
Located in the Kwali Area Council, about 86 kilometers from Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, Big Sheda community is notable to passersby for its roadside view of numerous gigantic black plastic containers, clusters of white sacks containing cassava batter, all arranged in front of an open wooden structured shade. The rancidness of cassava welcomes visitors from meters away.
Although a community like others in many ways, Big Sheda is making waves in the world of cassava and stands as a major supplier of cassava batter used for making fufu in most of the markets within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and beyond.
The Akpu Women Association
Behind the scenes of Big Sheda’s contributions to the akpu market in Abuja and other parts of the country is a group of 85 women who came together to help other women and their community in general.
Interestingly, these women cut across different ethnicities – Gbagyi, Bassa, Gana-Gana, Igbo, Yoruba, Igala, Gede, Efik, Mada, Jabba, just to mention a few.
For five years now, these women attest to a growth in business, membership and market due to their unique approach. Beyond accessing soft loans from microfinance institutions for purchasing cassava tubers, these 85 registered members of the association contribute N1,000 every five days, which they give needy members of the association as small loans. They also use their financial contributions for other activities like support for weddings of wards, burials and other social activities.
Leading this group is a seven-member executive headed by Mrs Justina Ibrahim, the founder of the association.
But beyond their cassava batter business, these women have been identified by the community as heroines, whose innovation has saved many marriages from collapse, kept children in school and brought recognition and hope to their community.
How the association started
The Akpu Women Association owes its existence to a 45-year-old Justina Ibrahim. In an interview with Weekend Trust, Justina narrated how the loss of her husband led to the formation of the association. She said her husband was the pillar of her previous garri (granulated cassava) business; hence when he passed away, she could not keep it afloat as the responsibility of taking care of their seven children was also left on her shoulders.
Unable to sustain her garri business, Justina joined some market women in a nearby community who produced cassava batter. Seeing the potential in the new business, she decided to introduce the idea to few of her friends at Big Sheda and they agreed to explore the idea with her.
With support from her three friends, Justina went to the chief’s palace to inform him of their intention to start.
Excited about the prosperity the initiative would bring, Justina said, “The chief of Big Sheda gave us this area where we now do business. It was filled with grasses and we had to clear the place. After that, I went to the market and bought a trampoline, which we used to provide shade. We continued with our business, and as times went by, people started coming.
“One day, the chairman saw us under the sun and decided to assist us by roofing the entire place, which we are now enjoying.” She added that since then, some people would usually go there to do little chores and get paid.
Justina also said some men in the community would reach out to say, “If not for you, my wife and I would have been separated, or my children wouldn’t have gone to school.” She added that the men always appreciated their efforts.
Attesting to the contributions of the Big Sheda women to the community, the chief, Alhaji Isa Abdullahi Yani, said he provided them with the land they are currently occupying.
“I am very proud of my community. I know that these women are helping the community one way or another,” he said.
Financial independence
Weekend Trust learnt that before the association emerged, the women relied heavily on their husbands for financial support. This dependence, according to the village head, strained relationships, and in some cases, even shattered homes.
Expressing how the association has helped her and her three children, a 30-year-old Patience Yusuf, whose marriage abruptly ended some years ago, narrated the hardship she faced after her husband drove her out of his house with the kids.
She said, “Before now, I did not have a source of income, but since I heard about this association, I started coming around to peel cassava and gradually gather money to pay my children’s school fees and also feed from it. In a day, I can make between N3,000 and N5,000.”
Her job starts as early as 6am and she works until 8pm. At times, her children come around to assist her so that they can make a little more money, she added.
The association has also been a source of help to widows in the community.
A middle-aged Janet Gajere, who has been a widow for nine years, spoke of how she found comfort and healing within the association. She said the financial and social support she got from the association was like medicine to her. She also revealed that at first, she was hesitant in accepting an invitation to join the association, but she is now the one telling other women to come and experience financial independence, adding, “I currently don’t lack food to eat and money to pay my children’s school fees.”
Members and workers of the association also testified of how it changed their lives positively.
Joy Nkechi Ochike, 53 and Mary Asukwo, 53, who both spoke in their dialects – Igbo and Efik respectively – said their families became better since they joined the association.
Making the cassava batter
Division of labour is key to the success of the women’s daily production. From peeling the cassava, fetching water, soaking it for fermentation and washing to produce the batter, every process is incentivised.
The faster these women deliver, the more money they earn.
As soon as truckloads of cassava tubers arrive from local farms, women and children rush to get as much as they can peel for the day. This is one way most of the women get money from peeling cassava.
According to them, the fermentation process lasts between three and four days. Potassium aluminum sulfate, also known as alum, is added to the soaked cassava to aid the process.
After the soaked cassava ferments, some women’s job is to wash it.
A 25-year-old Happiness Kaura, a graduate of the FCT College of Education, Zuba, one of those washing the fermented cassava, said she earned N150 from washing 100 liters of plastic containers full of fermented cassava, which she used to support herself in school and cater for other personal needs.
Although she said the job was stressful, she is glad that she could support herself through it.
After washing, the threadlike part of the cassava is removed and the watery paste allowed to settle down for a while. This thick paste is the cassava batter that is bagged and ready for making akpu.
A promising nationwide cassava batter market
Apart from the large supplies these women make for customers within Abuja, they also receive orders from Kano, Lagos, Kaduna and Port Harcourt.
The president of the association, Justina, said they weigh-bill sacks of cassava batter upon request by their customers in many states. She, however, attributed the growing market to the quality of their product. She is also optimistic that their business will be better in the coming years.
She also said that since cassava harvest had begun, a truckload now goes between N350,000 and N400,000. The price goes up at other times. Currently, their customers are charged N8,000 for a sack of batter, which previously cost N10,000.
Challenges
To ensure that they can continue with work into the night, Justina said they would need a solar panel to provide them light. She further said that considering the growing number of women to the association, there was also the need for an additional or bigger shade.
She also solicited government’s support to create a fence that would protect them from the risk of moving vehicles as the location of their business is by the roadside. Justina recalled that a car ran into them after an accident and destroyed the plastic rubbers they kept cassava. “It was God that protected one of the girls who had just left the place before the accident. So we are pleading that if it is possible, let the government help us build barricades along the road,” she said
The chief of the community also called on the government to provide processing machines that would help the women in peeling the cassava instead of doing it manually, saying this would make production faster.
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