The Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, through the Public Lectures Committee, invites the academic community and the general public to a Professorial Inaugural Lecture. The lecture will be delivered by Professor Ebenezer Kofi Howard, a Professor of Textile Design and Technology in the Department of Industrial Art, College of Art and Built Environment, KNUST. Find details of the lecture below:

Abstract of the Lecture

Topic: Beyond Clothing the Nudity of Humanity: How Sustainable Textiles and Apparel Industry Can Rescue Ghana from Its Socio-Economic and Environmental Quagmire

Ghana, one of the West African countries known for its vibrant textile industry, is gradually joining the league of other nations in the sub-region with a collapsed Textile and Apparel (T&A) manufacturing sub-sector. The industry, which was once the leader in Ghana’s industrial sector, serving as an engine of economic growth and providing employment at all skill levels, has undergone a considerable decline over the years due to internal and external bottlenecks.

Empirical evidence revealed that the sector’s decline is attributed not only to obsolete technology and high production costs but mainly to policy lapses that led to the proliferation of cheap textiles and second-hand clothing. These factors practically rendered Ghana’s domestic textiles and apparel products uncompetitive, crippling local operations, and forcing the closure of most firms. This has resulted in a surging unemployment index and a deepening economic crisis. Unfortunately, due to the limited supply of textile raw materials from domestic textile firms, Ghana’s emerging apparel industry has depended heavily on imported fabrics to sustain its growth, thereby relinquishing more than 70% of T&A value chain operations and economic and employment benefits to offshore counterparts.

The contending issues and the rippling effects of the dwindling state and lack of development of the T&A sector include:

1. High unemployment rate in the subsector as a result of a massive redundancy rate, leaving thousands of textiles and fashion graduates churned out by the country’s academic institutions jobless, affecting livelihoods and the country’s economy.
2. Acculturation of Western dress norms, where Ghanaian dress culture has been compromised by the adoption of Western fashion ideologies, negating Ghanaian cultural values, promoting imported textiles, and killing domestic textile firms.
3. The canker of second-hand clothing and textiles, fuelled by high imports of used clothing and textiles, is crippling the growth of the T&A industry with its socio-economic, health, and environmental nightmares.

Sadly, 95% of Ghanaians rely on second-hand clothes, including handkerchiefs, underwear, pants, bedsheets, towels, and socks, among others, for their clothing needs, highlighting the massive impact of the global second-hand trade on local T&A manufacturing. This dependency presents not only environmental and public health concerns but also constitutes a massive economic leak and social fracture.

Paradoxically, the country’s economy is becoming a “Marketing Economy,” where everyone is buying and selling, but with limited productivity. This certainly does not provide a good scenario for a developing country like Ghana that is pushing the agenda of job creation and economic empowerment. Such an agenda arguably thrives on a sustainable “Production Economy” that sustains and empowers nations to become giant economies, enabling them to be independent and self-reliant. The questions we should be asking ourselves are: “Are we truly independent? How do we justify our independence and self-reliance philosophy?” There is no argument that “Ghana is sitting on gold and begging for straw”.

It is in this respect that African revolutionary leaders, notably Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara, and Nelson Mandela, advocated economic self-sufficiency, anti-imperialism, and Pan-Africanism. They warned against dependence on foreign aid, imports, and neocolonial exploitation, arguing that countries unable to produce their own necessities would be forced into debt traps, resource extraction deals and labour exportation. This is in tandem with the Dependency Theory by German-American economist and sociologist, Andre Gunder Frank, who describes how peripheral nations become trapped in cycles of dependency, exporting raw materials and labour while importing finished goods. Evidently, Ghana’s current experiences and those of many African nations reflect the prophetic warnings foretold by these great minds. It is not out of place to establish that “a nation that does not produce to cater for the needs of its people and depends on imports will eventually sell its people in exchange for goods and services to survive”.

Aligned with Ghana’s commitment to contributing its quota to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, coupled with my passionate desire to find a lasting solution to the ostensibly insurmountable “wicked problems” of the T&A industry, I seek, through this lecture, to adopt a Socratic approach in tackling Ghana’s socio-economic and environmental crisis. I will argue for the desirability, feasibility, and viability of ways the T&A Industry can drive sustainable growth, create jobs, and uplift communities, drawing on lessons from over two decades of empirical research and global economic benchmarks.

The lecture will elucidate practical strategies for revitalising a thriving and vibrant T&A industry, positioning it as a plausible catalyst and the surest way to save Ghana from its socio-economic and environmental quagmire. I will briefly share my academic and professional journey towards the topic, contextualize the rationale and paradigm of the lecture; discuss the significance of the textiles and apparel industry with empirical evidence; establish the state of the industry; government’s safeguarding policies to sustain the industry; major challenges leading to the decline of the industry; contending issues;  and key lessons from selected benchmarked countries that have capitalised on T&A as an engine for employment and economic growth. Consequently, I will propose pragmatic interventions grounded in the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) model to promote sustainable growth in the industry, with key policy recommendations and future research directions.

Keywords: Textiles and Apparel Industry, Clothing, Nudity, Humanity, Sustainability, Circular Economy, Self-reliance, Fast Fashion, Second-hand Clothing, Marketing Economy, Production Economy, Quagmire.