Oil palm milling has long been a family tradition for Kendra Charles, a 32-year-old palm oil processor in the Otoloko community.
Growing up, Kendra worked alongside her parents after school and during holidays. She separated kernels from the shafts, operated the hydraulic press to extract oil and sometimes transported processed palm oil to nearby markets. This enabled her to learn everything about the business from an early age.
When she took over the running of her family’s mill in 2020, she did not think she needed to change anything. Even though Kendra worked hard, there was a low demand for the oil she produced.
Customers complained about the quality of her oil. The milling environment had an unpleasant smell, and unsold stock piled up.
“Our major concern was extracting oil from the fresh fruit bunches,” Kendra recalled. “We did not think about the environment and how it affects the oil we produced.”
Like most artisanal small-scale millers, Kendra disposed of mill effluent around the site, believing it would dry up over time, and stored fresh fruit bunches for a long time before processing them. These practices compromised the oil’s quality and discouraged buyers.
In 2025, when the Pathways to Prosperity project was introduced in her community, Kendra joined 30 other processors to be trained in proper disposal of mill effluent, the importance of processing fresh fruit bunches within three days of harvest and the use of briquettes made from palm waste as an energy source for milling.
Kendra immediately began implementing these improved practices at her mill to salvage her business.
The changes were visible almost immediately. The strong odour around the mill disappeared. The quality of her oil improved. Customers who had stayed away began to return, and new ones followed, leading to increased demand for her palm oil.
“I used to have large volumes of unsold oil,” she says. “Now, customers place orders in advance.”
She says the growing demand has motivated her to scale up production.
“Due to increased demand, I tripled my monthly production from 75 litres to 250 litres. During the peak period, I now earn a weekly average of 500,000 naira (312.50 euros) from an average of 150,000 naira (93.7 euros),” Kendra says.
Ernest Ita, project coordinator for Solidaridad in Nigeria, says the adoption of the practices by small-scale processors is improving oil quality and environmental stewardship.
“The intervention is transforming the ecosystem around the palm oil milling environment, improving working conditions for mill workers, improving access to market opportunities and income for the processors,” says Ernest.
Through the Pathways to Prosperity programme, Solidaridad is working with processors across multiple states (Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, Enugu and Kogi) of Nigeria to address unsustainable production practices, gender and social inclusion, access to improved services and inclusive market opportunities for the small-scale palm oil processors.
With support from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the project is showing that the adoption of sustainable practices at the processing level can unlock significant economic opportunities.