The Ministry of Trade and Industry of Ghana will begin the task of restructuring the apparel industry to attract investors, and build a sustainable source of foreign exchange inflows.
As a part of the revamping process, the Ministry plans to identify and secure locations for setting up new garment factories, solicit and provide required utilities, and upgrade and equip existing training facilities, according to Ghanaian media reports.
The Ministry's decision follows extension granted to qualifying Sub-Saharan African countries to export to the US without quotas and duties, under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The AGOA law, which benefits 37 Sub-Saharan African countries, was recently extended till 20 September 2025 by the US government.
Gerald Nyarko Mensah, technical advisor on export of the Ministry of Trade and Industry explained that the initiative to reposition the country's garment industry is a part of the five-year National Export Development Plan (NEDP), which intends to pump the export income to $5 billion.
Addressing a two-day workshop in Accra recently, Mensah stressed the need for vigorous capacity building, and added that Ghana has the potential to revitalise the industry to create improved economic development in spite of challenges of energy, water, and factory space.
Abou Fall, a global value chain specialist at AGOA, said laying the right mechanism in place could help Ghana benefit greatly from the next phase of the AGOA.
The chief of Party of the Trade Hub and African Partners Network, Jeffery Povolny, said the renewal of the AGOA legislation was an opportunity for Ghana to revive industrialisation. He added that the country had valuable resources, including competent labour force to engage in apparel industry.
