The incessant crave for imported second clothing, coupled with the yearn for anything foreign, is collapsing the local textiles industry, Mr Foli Kuma, Western Regional Director of the Ministry of Trade and Industry has said.
Other serious factors that are hampering the success story of the industry are smuggling of cheap wax prints and the negative effects of trade liberation programmes.
Ghana, as a result, loses more than GH¢50 million annually in revenue.
Mr Kuma said this at the annual Technological Fair, organized by the Department of Textiles Design and Technology of the Takoradi Polytechnic, on Monday. It is under the theme: “Branding the Local Textile Industry; Challenges of the 21st Century.”
He noted that textile import constituted 70 per cent of the total national consumption, which had affected the production capacity of five major surviving companies in the country.
“Equally serious is the unsurpassed expanding economy of China backed by high level of production technology and activities of unscrupulous Ghanaian traders who lead the campaign in pirating patterns of exotic Ghanaian designs,” he complained.
However, Mr. Kuma stressed, the government was committed to help reverse the negative trends into positive economic gains for the country through various interventions.
The Trade Ministry and the textile companies are still in consultations to create public awareness about the extent of the adverse impacts of smuggling on government revenue.
Mr John Bawuah, Executive Director of the Association of Ghana Industries, called for research to find innovative ways of dealing with the problems confronting the industry.
Mr Moses Akrofi, head of the Textiles Department, said the department had initiated a programme aimed at helping industries to have good branded textile marketing economy.
Mr John Frank Eshun, Vice Rector of the Takoradi Polytechnic, called on local industries to endeavour to improve upon packaging to enable them to stand the stiff competition in the industry.