Shea nut butter was extracted from shea nut by cold press method and was investigated as feedstock for the production of biodiesel. Biodiesel yield was used to verify the optimization, while density and viscosity were chosen to serve as an indicator for the effectiveness and completeness of the ester conversion process. Based on the amount of shea butter used, the final product yield obtained was 94.55% mass and the percentage conversion of FFA in shea butter to biodiesel was 92.3% using a methanol/oil ratio of 6:1 and 1.0% mass KOH at 60 min and 55°C, respectively. The important properties of the biodiesel (density, kinematic viscosity, cloud point, pour point, cetane number, neutralization number, iodine value, methyl ester content and high heating value) were compared to those of ASTM and EN standards for biodiesel. The comparison shows that the shea butter methyl ester could be used as an alternative to diesel.