Gov’t pledges support for garment sector to meet global market standard


The government is to support the garments sector in the country to make it more competitive in the global market.

In view of this, the importation of foreign fabrics into the country will be reduced, since most materials in the industry can be produced locally.

The Vice-President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, was speaking during a familiarisation tour of a garment factory, Dignity DTRT Limited, in Accra yesterday where he was conducted round the various production lines.
 
Dignity - Do The Right Thing (DTRT) Apparel was established by a Ghanaian company, Dignity, in partnership with its American counterparts, in 2014.

The factory currently has about 1,500 skilled employees, majority of whom are females, with 40 expatriate management staff.

A total of $10 million has been invested in the factory in the last two years. Last year, it exported 10 million units of polo shirts worth $30 million.

The factory is into apparel manufacturing and polo shirts mainly for export but plans to produce for the domestic market soon.

The Managing Director of the company, Mrs. Salma Salifu, together with the co-founder of DTRT Apparel, Skip Richmond, conducted the Vice president round the various production units of the factory to give him a better appreciation of the operations of the factory.

Among the sections visited were the cutting and training and pattern design service departments.

After the inspection, Mr. Amissah-Arthur expressed delight at the expertise which the factory staff displayed in their respective fields.

He commended the management and staff of the company for their hard work and commitment and pledged further government support to the company to expand its operations to employ more people.

The managing director appealed to the government to support the company to resolve some of the challenges militating against its growth.

She mentioned the lack of space for expansion and inadequate funds as some of the challenges.

The MD therefore appealed to Vice President Amissah-Arthur to make it possible for the company to access funds from the Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF) to expand on their operations.
 
SOURCE: Daily Graphic