Taskforce educates textile traders
A workshop has been organised to educate traders in textile and textile importers, as well as the communities within the Ho Municipality, on the negative impact of the trading in pirated textiles.
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The programme was organised by the taskforce on seizure and destruction of pirated textiles following a directive by the President for such sensitisation workshops to be organised nationwide.
Trading in pirated textiles has affected the performance of the local textile industry.
To curb the illegal importation of pirated Ghanaian textile prints and punish perpetrators, the Ministry of Trade and Industry constituted the taskforce and a vetting committee on the importation of African textile print.
However, these textile importers do not pass through the vetting committee for approval before importing the textiles.
At the programme, participants were educated on how to differentiate genuine textiles from pirated ones and this was done through the exhibition of varieties of these textiles.
Textile industry and development
The Volta Regional Minister, Ms Helen Adwoa Ntoso, in a speech read on her behalf, observed that the industry was a vehicle for promoting development because of its potential in creating employment, wealth and foreign exchange.
She said in the 80s, the country could boast about 30,000 workers in the textile industry but currently, it could hardly boast 3,000 workers. This, according to her, has contributed greatly to the unemployment situation in the country.
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The textile industry can only survive when people stop trading in pirated Ghanaian textiles.
The Secretary to the task force, Mr Lawrence Osei-Boateng, pointed out that pirated textiles were of low quality and could easily be identified by its light and shiny nature, wrong label and wrong e-mail addresses of the local designs.
The taskforce, he stated, had burnt over 6,000 pieces in five different exercises, with 1,500 more to be destroyed. The pirated textiles, he said, were seized from some traders in Aflao, Makola, Elubo, Obuasi, and Takoradi, among others places.
Currently, the taskforce has put on hold the seizure and destruction of the textiles but will resume after the sensitisation programme in May and also arrest offenders for prosecution.
Local manufacturers plead
On behalf of local manufactures, the Assistant Manager of Brand Production, Mr John Kwesi Amoah, pleaded with consumers to cherish the work of the local manufacturers to keep them in business.
He called on all to embrace the President’s advice to patronise made-in-Ghana goods to help resuscitate the local industry.
Similar exercises are expected to be organised at Aflao, Denu, Dzodze, Akatsi, and Hohoe, all in the Volta Region.