Babatola Faseru, president of the African Cashew Alliance (ACA), has said that the ACA is positioned to empower women and youths to increase cashew yield across Africa. He said this at the recently concluded 17th ACA Annual Cashew Conference & Expo with the theme ‘Sustaining the African Cashew Industry: Assessing the Journey so far and looking forward.’ “If you empower the woman, you empower the family, hence African Cashew Alliance intends to increase funding, training and capacity development in order to make the cashew industry attractive to youths, making them engaged, productive and self-reliant,†Faseru said. Read also: Olam reinstates commitment to support Kwara, Oyo cashew farmers During his address, the president said the ACA annual conference is not just a mere gathering of major players in the cashew value chain but a coming together of cashew industry stakeholders, private sector (business owners, producers, processors, exporters, public sector) to re-strategise and strengthen alliances for the progress and productivity of the cashew industry globally. He also said the Alliance is committed to sensitising all African countries on the need to tap into the goldmine- Cashew and increase productivity in the value chain to build a sustainable economy driven by women and youth. Faseru charged the president of the Consultative International Cashew Council (CICC) to create an African Cashew Development Fund, assuring that it will metamorphose into a Cashew Transformation Revolution Agenda which will in turn transform the African Cashew processing capacity/build a system whereby raw cashew nuts (RCN) are processed in Africa instead of shipping the RCN to Vietnam and India. Read also: West African cashew growers urged to shift focus to quality, processing The ACA is a non-profit organisation that represents the interests of the African cashew industry. Its annual conference is the largest gathering of cashew stakeholders in Africa. It is a platform for cashew producers, processors, exporters, importers, and other stakeholders to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the African cashew industry.