Experts urge Ghanaian govt to revamp textile industry

04 Aug '12

2 min read

The Ghanaian Government has been called on to revamp the domestic textile industry.

The call was given during a Regional Policy Fair on “Culture and the Economy in Perspective,” at Koforidua, a town and capital of the Eastern Region of Ghana.

The event noted that while leading textile producers in the country including the Ghana Textile Print and Akosombo Textile Limited were struggling to continue in business, entrepreneurs in the batik, tie and dye businesses are already out of business.

It has been observed that alongside other factors, less patronage for domestically produced textiles is also responsible for downfall of the country’s textile industry, experts said.

As caving in of the textile industry pushed several Ghanaian citizens to redundancy, it has severely impacted the nation’s economy, and hence the Government should act to resurrect the industry, they said.

Experts stressed on the need for supporting the domestic textile producing firms to help them continue with production of local and indigenous textiles and to sustain cultural inheritance, as dressing style of people also forms a part of culture.

They asked the Government to urge people, especially those serving in various Government departments and agencies in the country, to patronize domestically manufactured textiles.

According to official statistics, since 2000, around 20,000 textile workers in Ghana lost their jobs due to the industry’s collapse, which was mainly due to low patronage and invasion of imported textiles.

The count does not include several young people who were imparted training in batik tie and dye over last one decade, but failed to survive in business owing to non-existence of a promising market for their products.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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