Dr. Nora Bannerman Abbott has spent more than two decades shipping Ghanaian-made shirts and uniforms to major United States retailers, and she says the country’s apparel manufacturers now face the most consequential twelve months in the sector’s history: a one-year trade window that, if not maximised, could leave Ghana permanently outpaced by more aggressive regional competitors.
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), signed into law by President Donald Trump on February 3, 2026, as part of a broader government funding package, runs retroactively from September 30, 2025, through December 31, 2026. It allows eligible African exporters to reclaim duties paid during the four-month lapse in access. The Senate reduced the House of Representatives’ proposed three-year extension to a single year at the White House’s request, leaving African manufacturers, including those in Ghana, struggling to plan beyond the year’s end.
For Dr. Abbott, Chief Executive Officer of Sleek Garments Export Limited, the one-year frame is simultaneously an opportunity and a warning. “AGOA gives us breathing space,” she said in an interview. “But the question is whether we can triple our apparel exports before the window closes again. That depends on how quickly we address our structural challenges.”
The baseline Ghana is trying to triple from is itself a recovery position. Ghana’s AGOA-related exports were valued at approximately $340 million in 2024 and recorded a 45 percent decline in early 2025 as tariff uncertainty deterred orders and disrupted supply chains. That uncertainty was compounded when the United States imposed an additional 15 percent tariff on Ghanaian exports in August 2025 under a broader reciprocal trade policy, arriving on top of the 10 percent universal tariff that took effect on April 5, 2025. The AGOA renewal neutralises those apparel-specific tariffs for now, but the structural costs that made Ghana uncompetitive before the lapse have not moved.
Dr. Abbott identified three interlocking constraints. On financing, she said most local manufacturers must purchase fabric, pay wages and meet strict delivery timelines well before receiving payment from US buyers, a working capital cycle that requires affordable credit at scale. “Without access to affordable credit, expansion becomes difficult,” she said. On energy, she warned that utility tariffs can erode the cost advantage created by preferential market access. And on inputs, she stressed the need to rebuild backward linkages into local textile production, reducing dependence on imported fabrics that expose manufacturers to foreign exchange volatility and longer lead times.
The scale of Ghana’s structural gap is visible when set against regional competitors. Kenya has grown its AGOA apparel exports from $55 million in 2001 to $603 million in 2022, accounting for more than two-thirds of all its exports to the United States, while Ethiopia built 90,000 direct jobs in industrial parks powered almost entirely by AGOA market access before its suspension in 2022. Dr. Abbott acknowledged that Ghana’s apparel exports remain modest by comparison and said the renewal should shift the sector from survival mode to expansion mode.
Investors and lenders have not fully recalibrated to the renewal. Banks and lenders are demanding higher interest rates or additional guarantees to finance projects dependent on AGOA, increasing the cost of capital, because the one-year window does not provide the investment horizon typically required to justify factory expansion or equipment procurement. Dr. Abbott called for stronger coordination between government, financial institutions and manufacturers to reduce these bottlenecks before the December deadline creates another cliff edge.
She also cautioned against building an export strategy around a single market. “The US is important, but we should also explore Europe and regional African markets,” she said. “Diversification strengthens resilience.”
Ghana’s Trade Ministry has encouraged exporters to use the current window alongside the Accelerated Export Development Programme, which provides support for value-added export diversification across key sectors including cocoa processing, light manufacturing and non-traditional agriculture. But Dr. Abbott’s message to government was more direct: policy alignment and funding coordination must move faster than the trade calendar. “Tripling apparel exports is ambitious but achievable,” she said. “What we need now is speed, coordination and bold investment.”
