Accra, Feb. 11, - A development
partnership aimed at building and sharpening the vocational skills for managers
and workers to drive Ghana’s apparel manufacturing sector was launched in Accra
on Monday.
It is dubbed the: “Socially
Responsible Jobs in Ghana’s Emerging Apparel Sector” and being championed
through a private sector expertise and the German Development Cooperation.
The project forms part of the German Government’s develoPPP.de
programme, set up by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and
Development (BMZ).
It is to ensure the private
sector was developed to the point where business opportunities and development
policy initiatives intersect, and to provide financial aid to companies investing
in developing and emerging countries.
The apparel sector project is a
partnership between Dignity Do the Right Thing (DTRT) Apparel, West Africa’s
largest apparel manufacturer and exporter of sports lifestyle apparels, the
Ethical Apparel Africa, a profit sourcing company that provide apparel brands,
and the GIZ, a German organisation providing international cooperation services
for sustainable development.
Dr Gerd Muller, Germany’s Federal
Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, launched the partnership at
the DTRT premises in Accra while Mr Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, the Deputy
Minister of Trade and Industry, witnessed the signing after which they toured
the DTRT facility to familiarise with work there.
The German Minister and his
entourage also took the advantage to explore investment opportunities in the
textile sector.
“With this new strategic
partnership, we are strengthening the apparel manufacturing industry in Ghana.
The sector has the potential to creating high-quality jobs at scale and
contribute to Ghana’s development without exploiting its workers,” he said.
“Therefore, it is about fair
wages for decent work and a prosperous economic future for Ghana.”
Mr Ahenkorah later told the Ghana
News Agency that the partnership was a good venture, which the Government was
ready to support to revamp the textile and garment sector that started around
2002 under former President Kufuor’s PSI (Presidential Special
Initiative.)
He said the garment sector, which
had dipped over the years, was being brought back to life so it could employ
many of the youth.
The Deputy Minister said
squatters had taken over the apparel manufacturing enclave and that the
Ministry would relocate them and bring back the manufacturers through a
government stimulus package.
Mr Ahenkorah said the DTRT, which
employed about 2000 workers with 80 per cent being women, and shipping about
600,000 sporting wear to the USA monthly, needed to be supported to operate
smoothly.
Other local companies also needed
to be supported under joint ventureships, register them under the free zone
programme to bring in duty free raw materials, and export duty free and quota
free to enable them gain more revenue to support the Ghanaian economy, he said.
He gave the assurance that the
Government was ready to initiate policies to guide sector players to succeed.
Ms Salma Salifu, the Managing
Director of DTRT, said the partnership was a welcomed venture and that DTRT was
ready to support in providing practical internship opportunities for the ATTC
interns, who were being trained under a GIZ support programme.
Offering such practical training
for the interns was costly as they would be equipped to produce mainly for the
US and other European markets due to the high demand and standardisation in
international trade, she said.
GNA
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