The textile industry in Ghana is facing serious difficulties.Workers are being laid-off because of the pace of smuggling of cheap and fake prints from China. The market is flooded with counterfeit textiles.

Togo and Ivory Coast are often the entry point for smugglers, with some Ghanaian market traders even travelling to China to collect designs.

The borders are very porous with only a few of them manned by security people, making it very easy for these counterfeiters to pass through.

Employment figures in the industry reduced from a high of 25,000 in 1975 to 5,000 in the year 2000, before sliding further down to 3,000 in 2003 and 1,500 at the close of 2016.

Similarly, production level of fabrics was 130 million meters in 1975, 46 million meters in 1995, 65 million meters in 2000 and 39 million meters in 2003. Today, production is below the 30 million meter mark.

Workers are calling for the re-activation of the textiles piracy task force that was set up in 2010 to deal with traders in counterfeit textiles.

While locally produced cotton is used by firms, many of the dyes, chemicals and machines are imported from abroad at significant prices.