Govt votes GH¢16m to train youth in textiles and apparel industry

The government is to invest Gh¢16 million to train the first batch of 2,000 recruits from the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) in the textile and apparel industry, the Minister of Employment, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, has disclosed.

He said the approval for the release of the funds earmarked for the training would be subject to the completion of some procurement processes while ensuring value for money. 

“Once this is done, we should get this running as soon as practicable,” he said when he joined the American Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Robert Porter Jackson, to pay a working visit to Dignity DRTR Limited, a local apparel company operating in Accra.

Mr Iddrisu said it was the intention of the government to roll out 5,000 persons, mainly unskilled people, and these would include ‘kayayei’ among others.

According to him, this is being done as a tripartite collaboration among the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection; the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and other textile and apparel companies that will employ 3,000 youth. 

He said the move formed part of the President’s quest to transform the textile and apparel sector because “he identifies the apparel and textile sector as a catalyst to spearhead his industrial revolution”. 

Of the 5,000 to be absorbed, he said “we expect Dignity to take about 2,000 who will be YEA interns to be trained into skilled people”. 

AGOA

Mr Jackson said the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) had been renewed for another 10 years.

This creates further opportunities for the people who want to export into the United States market to do so unhindered.

He called on companies in the country to take advantage of the extension period to export into the American market.

Dignity performance

The Managing Director of the company, Ms Salma Salifu, said the start-up company had managed to grow into a reputable company in the last few months.

“We presently have a workforce of about 1,500, including expatriate. Most of the staff from Ghana we picked had no skills or education but we have been able to take them through rigorous training modules specially designed by the company to improve them to this level,” she said.

Today, the company is able to export a minimum of eight containers full of apparel to different markets across the world.