Martha Ankomah Charges Government To Ban Second Hand Clothing

• Martha Ankomah has called for an embargo on second-hand foreign clothes that have flooded the Ghanaian market
• The actress held the view that the restrictions on these foreign products would create job opportunities for indigenous Ghanaians
• She added that the focus should be on local and African prints since patronizing them would boost the country's economy

Ghanaian actress Martha Ankomah has charged the government to prohibit the importation of foreign second-hand clothing, infamously known as 'broni w'ewu', in the country.

She posited that aside from these inferior clothes overtaking the local prints, they are also harmful to the health of their users.

If only we can ban it [foreign clothing]. [But] we keep bringing clothes from other continents and most of it are second hand clothing and it’s not good for our health, in the first place. It also doesn’t support the economy in Africa. There is no point for us to wear other fabrics from other countries/continents.

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The brand ambassador for GTP in an interview on BBC Africa asserted that government focusing on the local textile industry would entice investors and encourage the youth to consider switching their job searches to that sector.

For us, in Ghana, we believe that what we do creates a lot of jobs for people. Now people are getting into fashion. The fashion industry is becoming big worldwide. Everybody wants to look good. And so why not for us to support our own by letting the government to come in to support the industry too as well because that also creates jobs for people. Then people can get more jobs to do. Then the youth can actually know that what we do and what we wear here create jobs and they can actually use that to transform their lives.

Martha pleaded that the exorbitant taxes that have been imposed on textile products should be reduced since the taxes drive potential investors away.

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It is high time the government invests more in the industry. They need to cut down the taxes because that can actually bring a lot of people into the industry to invest.

Chinese Company Invests $15m To Manage Fashion Waste In Kantamanto

In other related news, an amount of $15m has been pledged by online Chinese company Shein toward fighting against the increasing fashion waste in Kantamanto, Accra.

This was disclosed during a fashion summit in Copenhagen by Liz Ricketts, founder of Or Foundation which is an NGO in Kantamanto.

Source: YEN.com.gh