The Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) has called on the government to consider starting the 24-hour economy policy in the textile industry to revamp the sector and provide jobs for many Ghanaians.
Mr. Morgan Ayawine, the General Secretary of the ICU, said the textile industry cannot only work with machines and therefore needs more inputs from labour; therefore, it was the best start to creating the needed jobs, stating that in the past, when the industry was vibrant, one textile company could employ hundreds of workers.
Speaking at the ICU’s Tema Regional Conference, Mr. Ayawine revealed that the operations of Tex Styles Ghana (TSG), Akosombo Industrial Company Limited (AICL), and Volta Star Textile Limited (VSTL) have been seriously hampered over the years due to a lack of financial resources and government support to execute their functions.
“These organisations are some of the state-owned enterprises that are distressed and need urgent resourcing and government support to make them once more viable and profitable as in time past, to bring relief to their workers whose fate has been hanging in the balance for a long time now,” he said.
He added that the companies were plagued by a myriad of operational challenges that have militated against the sustainability of their operation.
He said, for instance, Tex Styles was currently operating under 50 per cent of its installed capacity. This deficiency has had a ripple effect on Volta Star’s functions, as it has been sourcing 25 per cent of its grey baft needs from it, constituting 100 per cent of Volta Star’s entire production, resulting in its closure.
He added that the influx of pirated counterfeits of textile products from outside Ghana, which takes 70 per cent of the textile market in Ghana, negatively impacts the sustainability of the local textile industry.
“This is a travesty of their patents and copyrights, and the government must therefore enforce the Textiles Tax Stamp and registration laws on textile designs to thwart the nefarious activities of foreigners in the textile market,” he added.
The ICU also called on the government to extend and maintain the Zero Value Added Tax (VAT) Exemption for the textile industry in Ghana to help them sustain their operations.
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