A Canada-based Ghanaian Associate Professor is making a spirited case for the revival of the country’s local textile industry through an expanded dress code policy.
Dr. James Tuffour, an Associate Professor at the School of Business at Burman University in Canada, terms his proposal “Beyond the Friday Wear,” and he urges the government and corporate Ghana to extend the current Friday Wear initiative to include Thursdays.
This policy, if adopted, he believes could not only stimulate the struggling textile sector but also ease pressure on the Ghana cedi and create new jobs.
In a thought-provoking article, “Sustaining the Ghanaian Economy: Beyond the Friday Wear,” Dr. Tuffour argued that while the National Friday Wear initiative, launched nearly two decades ago, helped promote Ghanaian culture and support local fabric makers, it has almost lost momentum and economic focus.
He explains that Ghana’s textile industry, which became vibrant after the Friday Wear policy was introduced decades ago, has been suffocated by global competition, especially from low-cost Chinese imports that benefit from economies of scale.
He believes revamping the local textile industry will require a deliberate creation of a local demand that will consume the locally produced textiles.
To him, for Ghana to compete globally, it must intentionally build local demand by expanding the Friday Wear culture to include Thursdays, which would double domestic consumption and encourage mass production. This, he believes, will be a real game changer, not just financial support.
“For our local industry to rub shoulders with their peers abroad, we must intentionally create a big market so that it can benefit from economies of scale. My proposal is not for the government to recapitalise the operators in this industry. Yes, financial access could give some comfort, but the real game changer is market access,” Dr. Tuffour indicated.
He added, “Revisiting the Friday Wear policy, the time has come for us to look into this project again. I refer to the new call as ‘Beyond the Friday Wear’. There must be a deliberate policy to extend the Friday Wear policy to Thursdays. Yes, we must embrace a ‘Wear-Thursday-Friday-Ghana’. Thus, local prints must be worn on Thursdays, too. To make the point clearer, corporate Ghana must embrace the wearing of our beautiful prints on another day apart from Fridays.”
Dr. Tuffour’s proposal envisions a corporate Ghana where local prints become the standard attire for two days of the workweek, ‘Wear Thursday-Friday Ghana’. According to him, this would “decolonise the business environment, embrace cultural pride, and stimulate local economic activity.”
Speaking on the economic benefits of such a policy, the associate professor noted this policy will significantly benefit not only large textile producers but also small-scale operators, including tailors, seamstresses, merchants, and fashion designers, who would experience increased demand for their services.
He notes that this is how Ghana can create jobs for the teeming youth and sustain small businesses.
He adds that every additional piece of locally made fabric worn in Ghana translates into more cedis circulating within the domestic economy and reduces the pressure on the local currency by minimizing imports.
