Hear the inspiring story behind the Katie’s Shop Brand.
Naa-Sakle Akuete likes to say that her company, Eu’Genia Shea, really grew from the hard work and ingenuity of “generations of mothers.”
Her grandmother used shea throughout her long career as a midwife in Ghana, where the ingredient is known as “women’s gold.” Her mother started her own enterprise, advocating for the 16 million women working in the shea industry across Africa. And her company’s shea-nut pickers are largely single mothers, Akuete says.
She founded Eu’Genia Shea after her mother was diagnosed with stage-four colon cancer in 2013, when Akuete came to the realization that “life was too short not to spend my days with her.” So she left her job on Wall Street to build a company with her mother at her side.
Eu’Genia Shea sells 100 percent shea butter products, created from nuts picked by about 12,000 women in northern Ghana. Akuete says she considers Eu’Genia Shea a “double bottom-line company,” and that enriching the lives of the shea-nut pickers she works with is a major priority. In addition to providing pickers with financial literacy training, Akuete donates 15 percent of their profits into an education fund to help their children attend school.
“We’re trying to help the pickers that we work with have a real partnership with us,” she says.
Watch our interview with Akuete to learn more about her story and this inspiring company.
