Ghana will soon not be able to point to a single textile manufacturing company in the country as the few existing ones are on the brink of total collapse.
Information gathered by Weekend Finder indicates that a taskforce commissioned by the government to check the influx of these cheap pirated textiles into the country has ceased to exist due to political interference in their work.
As a result, designs of the local textile manufacturers continue to be pirated and imported into the country, with the fake ones crowding out the originals out of the market.
The paper gathered that, currently, all the local textile manufacturers are planning another lay off to mark the collapse of the industry in the country.
The manufacturers have argued that they are not against the importation or manufacturing of quality wax prints in the country but are only concerned about the imitation of their trademarks and logos.
A market survey conducted by Weekend Finder indicates that the pirated textiles have virtually taken over the textile market in the central business district of the capital.
The pirated designs are conspicuously displayed in textile shops and sells at almost half the price of the original.
A pirated Printex fabric, for example, sells for GH₵25 while the original sells at GH₵45.
Agnes, a textiles dealer at the Makola Market, lamented the influx of pirated textiles was collapsing their businesses as many Ghanaians patronise the cheap ones due to the harsh economic situation in the country.
She noted that the situation has compelled a lot of genuine textile dealers to also join the sale of counterfeit ones to shore up their sales.
“It will surprise you to know that when a new design comes to the market, it takes only a matter of a month for them to bring in the fake one,” she lamented.
She was of the opinion that a strict check at the ports of entry would be an effective way of checking the influx of pirated goods into the market.
The local textile industry has for sometime been reeling under high taxes and cheap pirated textiles from China, a situation that has led to mass laying off of workers at the various textile companies across the country.
A lifeline solution to help relieve some of the burden on these companies was the idea of a taskforce that was commissioned to check the influx of pirated textiles that have flooded the Ghanaian market.
Sources say the activities of the taskforce in ridding the market of these pirated textiles were creating disaffection for the government, the reason they have been rendered ineffective.
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